North Carolina · UplandNorthern bobwhite quail

Provisional: North Carolina has no 2026 bobwhite count, so this read rests on the state's own biologist rather than a survey figure. Much of the state sat in drought from spring through mid-summer, with a large portion reaching severe or extreme levels, before late-summer rains brought some relief and localized flooding. NCWRC's own upland game bird biologist, quoted in Quail Forever's 2026 forecast, calls that drought "not encouraging in terms of quail reproduction," adding that "the lack of vegetative cover for nests and low insect abundance suggest this will be a low reproductive year." Quail Forever's broader summary is more hedged: biologists and quail managers "expect bird numbers to be stable to lower in many areas." A January snowstorm that dropped up to 16 inches in parts of the Piedmont likely caused some localized winter mortality, though Quail Forever's state coordinator expects habitat and nesting success to matter more to fall numbers than the snow. Last season was roughly in line with recent years, with hunters reporting anywhere from about one covey every three hours to four coveys an hour, the best of it on intensively managed private land. Public starting points are NCWRC Game Lands from the Piedmont through the Coastal Plain, Fort Bragg in the Sandhills, Camp Lejeune on the coast, and the Uwharrie and Croatan National Forests. Look for young forest, recently thinned pine, and other early-successional cover first.

A prolonged spring and summer drought that cut nesting cover and insect food, which NCWRC's own biologist expects to make 2026 a low reproductive year.