Chukar
The chukar is a round, fast bird that is known to scrabble up rocky slopes and cliffs to escape danger.
About This Species
Chukars are not endemic to North America, but were introduced as game birds from Eurasia. Chukars are heard more often than they are seen. They have a "rally" or assembly call to regroup scattered members of the covey, a series of slowly repeated then rapid chuck notes that sound like per-chuck or chuckara. They also utter a shrill whitoo! of alarm from the ground or when flushed or held in the hand. Other names for chukars include: chuckar, chuckor, Indian Hill partridge and chukar partridge.
Conservation
Bringing Chukar to Colorado
Historically, chukars have been transplanted in nearly every county in Colorado, however most of these transplants were either unsuccessful or were not monitored post-transplant and success could not be determined.
2014
biologists released 168 wild chukars from Utah into the foothills of the Poudre Canyon near Fort Collins
4
different locations chukar were released, which biologists evaluated before transplant to determine habitat suitability and chukar impact on native game or non-game birds. Before release, biologists banded each chukar with aluminum leg bands.
60
birds were outfitted with 10-gram necklace radio collars, which will allow biologists to monitor survival during fall, winter and spring
Reintroduction
Transplant and Monitoring
Walk-in traps were used in Utah to catch the wild chukars used in this transplant project. During the summer, birds in Utah use wildlife water guzzlers as their source of moisture in the desert. Water is placed in the walk-in traps so that the birds must walk into the wire box enclosure to reach the water source. Once the desired group of chukars is in the walk-in trap, biologists can approach and remove chukar one-by-one to holding in the transport cages.
Biologists used game-farm bird crates to transport and release chukars on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Poudre project. Wild birds caught in Utah were put in these crates for transport by Colorado Parks and Wildlife aircraft and trucks to Colorado.
All 168 chukars are marked with uniquely numbered aluminum leg bands. These are commonly used in avian projects; they are lightweight and provide contact information for anyone that might find the remains of one of these chukars.
Sixty chukars were outfitted with a 10-gram, necklace-style radio collars that broadcast a radio signal at a Very High Frequency (VHF) that is unique to each radio. By using the telemetry receiver, the biologist is able to hear the sound made by each collar at each specific frequency. Each collar beats 30 times per minute when the bird is alive. When the collar hasn't moved for 8 hours the signal changes to 60 bpm so mortalities can be detected. The batteries in these collars should last about a year.
Radio telemetry equipment allows biologists to track the location of the birds by listening to the sounds by each radio collar. A field technician will monitor radio-collared chukar 3-4 days a week until spring 2015. Monitoring requires hiking up steep ridgelines to get sufficient elevation to be able to hear the radio signals of marked birds. General locations of live radio signals are recorded and any mortality signals are investigated further.
More Information:
Physical Characteristics
Wings
Chukars are small, stocky, ground-dwelling members of the pheasant family with short, rounded wings.
Color
Males and females are similar in appearance with a short, thick, red bill, red eye-ring, white belly, and red legs and feet. They have a black band above the bill that extends through the eye and across the upper neck, and a buff face and throat enclosed by a black necklace.
Their outer tail feathers are rufus and are visible only in flight. They have black bars on pale flanks and a blue-gray crown, nape, breast, and back with a brownish suffusion on the back.
Feathers
Immature birds are similar to adults.
Size
They grow to a length of 13 to 15.5 inches. Males are larger and average a weight of 21 to 26 ounces; females weigh between 16 to19 ounces.
Range
Chukars are native to Eurasia and have been widely introduced into North America. They are established locally from south central British Columbia to central and eastern Montana south to Baja California, southern Nevada, northwestern New Mexico, and west-central Colorado. Chukars were introduced in Colorado in 1937. Attempts to establish self-sustaining populations succeeded best in the canyons and hills of west central Colorado in Montrose, Delta, Mesa and Garfield counties. Greatest concentrations are along the Colorado and Gunnison river drainages below 6,600 feet. There are also indications of a resident population in southwest Colorado in Montezuma County. Currently, because game farms and recreational bird hunting clubs raise and release them, chukars can turn up almost anywhere.
Habitat
Chukars inhabit open, rocky, sagebrush-grassland areas on dry mountain slopes and canyons. They also inhabit areas with Mormon tea, bitterbrush, currant and rabbitbrush. In the southern portions of their range, they may be found in saltbush-grassland habitat but generally avoid pinion-juniper climax habitat. During hot weather, they concentrate near water provided by springs, seeps and small perennial and intermittent streams. They will disperse when the surrounding vegetation greens up after a rain. In winter, they need south-facing slopes, free of deep snow.
Diet
During the summer and fall, they feed primarily on seeds of cheatgrass, Russian thistle, rough fiddleneck, and redstem filaree. They will also eat seeds of Indian ricegrass, curly dock, and mustard as well as grass blades, stems and buds of a variety of plants, wild onion seeds, grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Reproduction
Research shows that, in Colorado, only a few chukars live longer than two years. As a result, populations are subject to big swings in abundance. During mid-March birds pair off for mating. Nests are difficult to find. In most cases they are shallow depressions scratched in the ground and lined with dried grasses and feathers. Typical locations are hidden under shrubs or well concealed by rocks and brush. The female will lay 10 to 20 yellow-white eggs that are spotted or speckled with brown and incubate them for 24 days. Pairs produce only brood per year, but will persistently re-nest to succeed at producing young. Females tend the nest while males leave to form bachelor groups. Only occasionally will a male remain with the female. Broods come off the nest from late May to mid-June. Upon hatching, the young follow the female who shows them food, but does not feed them. The young can fly short distances in two to three weeks. Families join in large groups in the late summer.