Outside the breeding season bobwhites live in coveys, typically of around a dozen birds. At dusk the covey settles on the ground and forms a compact circle, bodies pressed together with tails inward and heads facing outward around the rim.
Two advantages follow from the geometry. Huddling reduces the surface area each bird exposes to cold air, which matters for a small bird with a high surface-to-volume ratio during winter nights. And with heads pointing outward, the covey has all-round surveillance and can flush explosively in multiple directions when disturbed, which complicates a predator's target selection.
Bobwhite numbers have declined severely across most of the range, and the usual explanation is not hunting but habitat: the loss of weedy field margins, fire-maintained pine savanna and early-successional cover to intensive farming, planted pasture grasses and fire suppression.