There’s nothing better than the smell of chukar breasts wafting off the grill! The problem is hiking steep, rocky mountains looking for the elusive partridge while they laugh at you from the next peak over. A successful chukar hunt is challenging for even the most seasoned hunter.
Chukar Partridge
The chukar partridge is endearingly known as the red-legged devil and is a relatively prolific upland game bird in Nevada. Chukars are small and plump with males and females looking the same; both have white wings with vertical black stripes, grey breasts, a black line that circles the face, a red-ringed eye, red beak, and red legs.
Chukar is a non-native bird species that was introduced to North America from the Middle East and Asia in the 1800s. Since then, chukar has thrived in the West due to a preferred habitat of sagebrush and dry grasses that grow on remote rocky slopes with a reliable water source nearby (hello, Nevada!). High elevation public land is prime real estate for chukar which makes it the perfect game for a Nevada hunter. There is no shortage of low-pressure BLM hunting land here!
Hunting Regulations
The chukar hunting season typically runs from mid-October to the first week in February. Every year, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) releases regulation guides both available for download and at most sportsman stores.
A resident bird hunting license costs $38 for adults and $15 for youth. Nonresident licenses are sold as daily permits for $23/day and $8 for each consecutive day.
The 2019/2020 season had a daily limit of six chukars with a total possession limit of 18. According to Nevada Magazine, these are the areas to consider for a successful hunt due to high chukar population numbers:
- Churchill County
- Elko County
- Humboldt County
- Lander County
- Lyon County
- Mineral County
- Pershing County
Bringing a good bird dog with you on a wild chukar hunt will save you a lot of time and effort. A good hunting dog like a pointer or setter will flush the birds out and retrieve them. Your knees will thank you! Just remember that the best way to hunt birds is to come at them from above so they fly up into your shot.
If you find chukar hunting a little too grueling (and slow), there are plenty of good game bird species, both upland and migratory, to chase in Nevada including:
Upland Game Birds
- Blue grouse
- Ruffed grouse
- Hungarian partridge
- Ring-necked pheasant
- Greater sage-grouse
- Himalayan snowcock
- Mountain quail
- Gambel’s quail
- California quail
- Crow
Migratory Game Birds
- Duck
- Geese
- Swan
- Merganser
- Coot
- Snipe
- Scaup
Chukar Hunting in Nevada with Prime Revo
We are partial to big game hunting in our great state of Nevada, but we love getting out to bird hunt too! We mostly like it when we come home with dinner, of course. Chukar tastes like chicken but that much better!
While we don’t have a Prime Revo episode of us scrambling up rocky cliffs listening for the “chuck, chuck, chuck” of the red-legged devil, check out this awesome episode of Joey and Connor trying their luck with duck hunting!
