hunted south tx last week and most of the birds we killed had empty craws. I don't recall seeing this before and I was wondering a couple of things. 1) do you call it a craw or a crop? 2) does a quail empty their craw every night or does it take awhile for them to empty it? 3) the birds we shot were healthy with lots of fat and the hunting conditions were cold and wet. do you think it's possible the birds just didn't want to feed or is this a sign their food supply is running low?

This time of year they are feeding on green forbes. There should be plenty due to rain last couple of months. They probably hadn’t fed for a while, waiting on better weather. At least that’s how I see it, have found plenty with empty craw

Back in the day.

I took a couple bobwhites 2 weeks ago and they had a small mixture of insects and seeds in their crops. I would imagine it would depend on the time of the yr as to what their food source would be.

this was my first trip to south tx to hunt. The ranch I was hunting didn't have the same food sources as I'm used to seeing in the rolling planes. Our birds out west will typically be full of salad this time of year.

The birds down south also eat the greens like the west Texas birds. Also have found small black seeds, and of course the milo from stationary and road feeding. I’ve found small black peas in other areas of south texas, I believe they are from goat weed.