Habitat use is an important ecological parameter that is used to make informed decisions about quail management and research. Statistical methods for quantifying habitat use are numerous, but few objective criteria are available to support the selection of a particular analytical approach. Therefore, we compared breeding season habitat use by radio-marked northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) at 2 study sites in Mississippi with 2 widely used statistical methods; Chi-square goodness-of-fit test with Bonferroni confidence intervals, and compositional analysis. These statistical methods produced similar results for both study areas; however, more detailed habitat use information was provided by compositional analysis when performed using the customary hierarchical approach. Therefore, for analysis of radio-marked quail, we recommend this method due to its effective hierarchical approach, improved statistical validity, and ability to incorporate other population parameters (e.g .. survival) into statistical models of habitat use by northern bobwhites
