Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Nature Watch - Hungarian Partridge & Brood

I live at 5,250' elevation here in rural SW Montana and Hungarian Partridge often come through my yard/property.
But this afternoon was a special visit.
What looked like a mother Hungarian Partridge came walking across my lawn followed by a huge brood of chicks.
They were on a path towards the area underneath my hanging bird feeder - that is filled with seeds about year round.
The feeder is just 4 feet from my keyboard and the brood got within 9 or 10 feet from me.
Anyway I could not believe how many chicks were coming through the grass behind her and I was trying to count them but was having a tough time.
Then they all came to my cement walkway that leads from my front porch to our private drive.
Just as they all were on the cement my neighbor comes along the drive peddling his mountain bike.
He was about 30 yards from the birds but mother Partridge chirped and laid down and eventually (in several seconds) all 14 (fourteen!) tiny chicks also laid down on the cement until "danger' had passed - then they diverted from the path to the bird feeder and headed off toward my small rhubarb patch and some shrubbery.
I have my Nikon on standby and hopefully when I see them again I will get a photo.
I had NO idea the Hungarian Partridge could birth (hatch) that many chicks.
Some good news for the Hungarian family is that the "first cutting" of hay and alfalfa all around my place just occurred and has more than likely thinned out the feral cat numbers that plague the game birds and song birds in my area.
Way to go Mother Nature.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Great news... Hope you are having a good one.. we are home...

I always have huns every year on my
Property. Fun to watch the chicks and how the mother will divert you away if get too close. I keep a e collar on my dog hiking in June . She’s always pointing the chicks of guns and blue grouse around the house property.

Huns can have up to 16 or so eggs in a clutch though hatching that many as well as successfully raising that many chicks can be difficult. Hun numbers have plummeted here in the last 30 years. Winters have not been harsh enough and springs too wet for them. They like more arid climes than we have been getting though the weather has been OK for pheasants. The loss of small grain production, decreased numbers of cattle/dairy farms, and the introduction of CRP has also hurt Hun numbers greatly as it removed a preferred cover type.

I like Huns, they are a neat bird and the closest I will see to bobwhites up here. In the late 70's and into the early 90's we would target Huns and shoot pheasants or sharptails as a bonus but that really changed after the advent of CRP. 30+ years ago Huns could be found throughout the southern 1/3 of the state and along the western edge to the Canadian border. Now, the best numbers are in the southwest corner and even there they aren't as common as they once were.

Woodmaster81: Sorry to hear of the declining numbers in your area.
Mans interference with mother nature sometimes is quite the detriment.
By the way what part of the world are you in - I looked in your profile and no mention of where you are at.
Which state are you in now?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Ribka: I have never observed that behavior in the Huns around my house - the grasses and crops are to high I guess.
I have seen Hungarian Partridge and Magpies engage in "combat" on several occasions though.
I had put some wild bird seed out on the ground one winter and on that occasion the Magpies showed up after the Huns had been eating for a while.
I had put the seed under an evergreen tree where the snow had evaporated and the Magpie landed about 2 feet from the Huns. One Hun came waddling over to the Magpie and as it got close the Magpie jumped up in the air a foot or so and was coming back down doing a back flip as it was propelling into the Magpie and hit the Magpie in the chest with the Huns feet!
I could believe what I had seen!
I mean that Hun did a full circle and a half back flip and pummeled into the Magpie.
Soon the Hun repeated that low to the ground aerial maneuver and hit the Magpie again.
The Hun did that offensive maneuver three times before the Magpie flew off!
I am always puzzled by the Hungarian Partridge when I am out Deer and Antelope Hunting as to how noisy they are.
I mean I can hear them coming from over a 100 yards - they cluck and sputter and coo up a storm.
You would think they would choose to be quiet as the country I live in (SW Montana) is full of all kinds of predators and birds of prey.
Yeah I like the Huns a lot myself.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'm in Minnesota but I get around a bit. Our peak years for Huns were some of the lowest points for pheasants recorded. Winters were pretty harsh with fairly dry springs. Huns like a more arid environment than MN normally produces so it was to be expected that populations would decrease as the weather returned to normal. I had hopes that global warming would reverse the trend but, alas, that belief seems to be a fantasy and I will have to settle for pheasants.

Farming practices changed which didn't help much. The hayfields that were used to feed cattle were converted to crop land when prices took off which limited nesting and summer cover. Pastures were similarly converted which wasn't a boon. That which wasn't put into crops was enrolled in CRP which had an emphasis on pheasant cover rather than Huns. Huns can use pheasant cover but it is less than optimal and barely maintains a viable population.

Huns served their purpose, they provided hunting opportunities in areas when such opportunities would otherwise be lacking. I do miss seeing them as regularly as I used to but it is a little more of a thrill now as they are often unexpected. If I really want to hunt them, it is not a long drive to Montana, the Dakotas, or Manitoba or Sasketchewan to chase them. I've done it in the not so distant past and will do so again in the not too distant future.