A captive chukar photographed at the E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area near Corvallis. The chukar, a type of partridge, is one of the favorite upland game birds for hunters to pursue in Northeastern Oregon.

BAKER CITY — Russ Elms has hiked many hard miles in a fruitless search for his feathered quarry.

But not recently.

The miles are still hard, to be sure.

The torturous topography which chukars, a type of partridge, prefer ensures that no hunt could be fairly considered a leisurely stroll.

But for the current hunting season, which started in October 2023 and continues through Jan. 31, Elms has rarely walked any great distance before coming across a covey of the fast-flying upland game birds.

“It’s been really good,” said Elms, who lives near Baker City and has been hunting chukars in Baker County for more than 35 years.

“It’s one of the best years I’ve seen in a decade,” Elms said. “Waves of birds, it doesn’t matter where I go.”

His favorite hunting grounds are the breaks of the Snake River at the eastern edge of the county. It’s classic chukar country, with steep sagebrush slopes capped by rimrock and with plentiful cheatgrass, the invasive annual grass that chukars rely on for food.

Ample rainfall during spring created good rearing conditions for chukar chicks, which are born in late spring.

The hens can produce clutches of up to 20 eggs.

With record rainfall in late August, when the remnants of Hurricane Hilary doused Baker County, the grass, especially on south slopes, rebounded from its usual summer dormancy.

“I can’t believe how tall the grass is,” Elms said. “There’s lots of feed.”

He said the birds, besides being plentiful, are also healthy, with thicker layers of fat than he’s accustomed to seeing.

According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), a survey of chukar in Eastern Oregon found that 88% had cheatgrass in their crops. Another common food is the root bulbs of the prairie star, a common spring wildflower.

Elms said he has found bountiful populations of chukar not only along the Snake, but also in the Burnt River Canyon in southern Baker County.

He’s training a new puppy this year, and there’s been plenty of experience for the dog.

Record numbers of birds during summer survey

Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at ODFW’s Baker City office, said chukars have proliferated the past two years, a trend he attributes to the excellent conditions during the spring nesting season.

“Phenomenal,” is the adjective Ratliff picks.

Each summer, ODFW biologists drive the same routes in Baker County, counting chukars.

During the 2022 survey, biologists tallied an average of 112 birds per 10 miles traveled, the highest on record for Baker County.

The 2023 survey ranked second, with 96 chukars per 10 miles, topping 2003, when there were 95 per 10 miles.

“There was great chick production this year, and we were seeing big coveys,” Ratliff said.

Although chukars have relatively short lives, two consecutive years with large numbers of chicks born can significantly bolster populations.

And because hens often produce a dozen or more chicks per year, chukars, which are vulnerable to harsh winter weather, can recover their populations much more quickly than, say, deer, since does usually have one or two fawns per year.

The weather has posed no threat to upland birds so far this winter, Ratliff said.

With snow scarce, chukars have had no trouble finding food.

Hunters taking advantage of surging population

Mikal Cline, ODFW’s upland game bird biologist, told outdoor writer Gary Lewis, who contributes a monthly column to EO Media Group, that Oregon’s chukar harvest through the end of October was up 61% from the same period last year. The season started Oct. 14.

Hunters took about 10,500 chukars in Harney and Malheur counties during October, and about 5,750 birds in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties, with a majority of those coming from Baker County, Cline said.

The Columbia Basin area produced about 1,200 chukars.

Harvest figures for November and December aren’t yet available.

Elms said he plans to continue hunting regularly through the end of the season, Jan. 31. The daily bag limit is eight chukars or Hungarian partridges (a related species that sometimes shares habitat with chukars), with a possession limit of 24 birds.

Chukar history

in Oregon

The chukar is native to the Middle East and southern Asia, including Indian. The species was introduced in Oregon in 1951, when 280 adult chukar raised at the Ontario Game Farm were released in Hart Mountain northeast of Lakeview, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).

Ultimately the state released more than 76,000 birds, and they became established in much of Eastern Oregon.

The first legal hunt was in the fall of 1956, when the daily bag and possession limits were three birds. Populations peaked around 1980, according to ODFW, when 34,000 hunters harvested nearly half a million chukar.

In recent years the annual harvest has been much less, averaging about 41,000 birds.

The current daily bag limit is eight birds, with a possession limit of 24.

“It’s one of the best years I’ve seen in a decade. Waves of birds, it doesn’t matter

where I go.”

— Russ Elms, chukar hunter from Baker County