South Dakota · UplandNorthern bobwhite quail

South Dakota sits at the extreme northern edge of bobwhite's continental range, and SD GFP's own quail page is explicit about where: SD GFP states verbatim that 'South Dakota is on the extreme northern range for these birds with wild birds occurring in the extreme southeastern part of the state.' An independent ornithological reference corroborates this as 'at the very northern end of their range,' present only in the state's far southeast, with harsh winters cited as the limiting factor on any further northward range expansion. The season is regulated statewide as a generic 'Quail' listing (bobwhite is the only quail species with a genuinely wild SD population), so the legal open area overstates where a hunter would actually find birds.