What are these quail eating?

It's a short-bladed grass; not clover. All our birds a couple weeks ago had been feeding on it.





Can't see it too good if at all in these pics but there's some very tiny black seeds there also.

We saw some of that on our last outing.

Where were they harvested?

Karnes County, near Kenedy. They had good, and timely, rain last year ... best quail population in recent memory on our lease.

I'm guessing Winter wheat as far as the green goes.

Winter wheat or Mesquite Grass would be my guess

The seeds look like ragweed. It's their meat and potatoes.

Could be winter wheat or whatever kind of winter grass but for sure a lot more of it than you usually see. I hunted a week in Oklahoma recently and there was a little bit of green grass in the crops of the birds I took but if it was available, broomweed seed was the preferred food. I'd say over half I checked were 100% broomweed seed and I mean crops packed full. Plenty of everything a quail bird could ever want to eat in western Oklahoma this year and the birds were in exceptionally good shape.

My guess would be a cultivated grass or winter wheat. When it comes to diet, quail will feed on a wide variety of plants, native and cultivated.

Lespedeza.

Oklahoma birds are eating something green too. The only thing I have seen in our area that is that green, is Wheat.

My birds from last weekend had green vegetation. We don't have any wheat fields in the area for 5 miles. Some kind of wild grass or weed.

Hello! Not telling you again.

R u sure it is a grass. Shot some birds south of san antonio (unvalued) last week that looked as if they had been eating new leaves from black brush.

It's difficult to see exactly what the green leafy objects are in the picture, but typically what I see late season like this is filaree or pig weed. Keep your fingers crossed that this upcoming weather doesn't amount to layers of ice or snow that covers the ground too long. If it does, heavy supplemental feeding OFF THE ROADS is crucial for these birds to survive / carrying as much weight as possible headed into this Spring. This is for non South Texas (Rolling Plains, High Plains and Western Oklahoma)....

Avoid the natural disasters (crazy flooding run off when hens are on their nest, big hail stones at the worst time OR what's mentioned above) and simply 75% or more of average annual rainfall....we will see an explosion in The Bobwhite population in 2015. Time to add an extra dog to your string and / or a new pup to learn on the job, stage is set unlike we've seen since 2002-2003.

Welcome to the forum Txsquail. You sound as if you know what you're writing about.

I guide in W.Texas and see quail eating a green plant called fillery. It is a wild legume similar to alfalfa. Very high in protein with good moisture content. Hard to tell from pics exactly what you are seeing.

Texas filaree (Erodium texanum) is in the geranium family and, like you mentioned, an important food source for quail in the early spring months when seeds and invertebrates may be difficult to find. Difficult to tell from the photo what it may have eaten though.