Chukar partridge

The chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar), or simply chukar, is a Palearctic upland gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It has been considered to form a superspecies complex along with the rock partridge, Philby's partridge and Przevalski's partridge and treated in the past as conspecific particularly with the first. This partridge has well-marked black and white bars on the flanks and a black band running from the forehead across the eye down the head to form a necklace that encloses a white throat. Native to Asia, the species has been introduced into many other places and feral populations have established themselves in parts of North America, Malta and New Zealand. This bird can be found in parts of Middle East and temperate Asia.

Description

thumb|left|upright|Chukar at [[Chang La, Ladakh, India.]]

thumb|left|upright|Illustration from [[Allan Octavian Hume|Hume and Marshall's Game Birds of India, Burma and Ceylon]]

The chukar is a rotund long partridge, with a light brown back, grey breast, and buff belly. The shades vary across the various populations. The face is white with a black gorget. It has rufous-streaked flanks, red legs and coral red bill. Sexes are similar, the female slightly smaller in size and lacking the spur. The tail has 14 feathers, the third primary is the longest while the first is level with the fifth and sixth primaries.

It is very similar to the rock partridge (Alectoris graeca) with which it has been lumped in the past but is browner on the back and has a yellowish tinge to the foreneck. The sharply defined gorget distinguishes this species from the red-legged partridge which has the black collar breaking into dark streaks near the breast. Their song is a noisy chuck-chuck-chukar-chukar from which the name is derived. The Barbary partridge (Alectoris barbara) has a reddish-brown rather than black collar with a grey throat and face with a chestnut crown. Initial introductions into the US were from the nominate populations collected from Afghanistan and Nepal. The birds are hunted across the dry, rocky Columbia Basin, especially in the vicinity of the Snake River in Washington and Oregon. It has also been introduced to New South Wales in Australia but breeding populations have not persisted and are probably extinct. A small population exists on Robben Island in South Africa since it was introduced there in 1964.

The chukar readily interbreeds with the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), and the practice of breeding and releasing captive-bred hybrids has been banned in various countries including the United Kingdom, as it is a threat to wild populations.

Systematics and taxonomy

thumb|Alectoris chukar

The chukar partridge is part of a confusing group of "red-legged partridges". Several plumage variations within the widespread distribution of the chukar partridge have been described and designated as subspecies. In the past the chukar group was included with the rock partridge (also known as the Greek partridge). The species from Turkey and farther east was subsequently separated from A. graeca of Greece and Bulgaria and western Europe.

Subspecies

The chukar has 14 recognized subspecies:

A. c. chukar (nominate species) (J. E. Gray, 1830) - eastern Afghanistan to eastern Nepal
A. c. cypriotes (Hartert, 1917) - southeastern Bulgaria to southern Syria, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus
A. c. dzungarica (Sushkin, 1927) – northwestern Mongolia to Russian Altai and eastern Tibet
A. c. falki (Hartert, 1917) – north central Afghanistan to Pamir Mountains and western China
A. c. kleini (Hartert, 1925) – northern Greece through Bulgaria and north Turkey to the Caucasus
A. c. koroviakovi (Zarudny, 1914) – eastern Iran to Pakistan
A. c. kurdestanica (Meinertzhagen, 1923) – Caucasus Mountains to Iran
A. c. pallescens (Hume, 1873) – northeastern Afghanistan to Ladakh and western Tibet
A. c. pallida (Hume, 1873) – northwestern China
A. c. potanini (Sushkin, 1927) – western Mongolia
A. c. pubescens (R. Swinhoe, 1871) – inner Mongolia to northwestern Sichuan and eastern Qinghai
A. c. sinaica (Bonaparte, 1858) – northern Syrian Desert to Sinai Peninsula
A. c. subpallida (Zarudny, 1914) – Kyzyl Kum and Kara Kum Mountains (Tajikistan)
A. c. werae (Zarudny and Loudon, 1904) – eastern Iraq and southwestern Iran

Population and status

thumb|right|Chukar partridge (right) in the [[Antelope Island State Park, Utah, US]]

This species is relatively unaffected by hunting or loss of habitat. Its numbers are largely affected by weather patterns during the breeding season. The release of captive stock in some parts of southern Europe can threaten native populations of rock partridge and red-legged partridge with which they may hybridize.

thumb|upright|150px|A chukar in a 17th-century Persian encyclopedia

Chukar will take a wide variety of seeds and some insects as food. It also ingests grit.

Birds in captivity can die from Mycoplasma infection and outbreaks of other diseases such as erysipelas. In North Indian and Pakistani culture, as well as in Hindu mythology, the chukar (referred as Chakor) sometimes symbolizes intense, and often unrequited, love. It is said to be in love with the moon and gazes at it constantly. Because of their pugnacious behaviour during the breeding season they are kept in some areas as fighting birds.

External links

Chukar – Alectoris chukar – USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
eNature.com – Chukar