Now Here Is An Interesting Sight In Fairfax

[Henry]

Hi Henry,
    I was wondering if you could post this on your site and see what info we can get.
Thanks!
Julie Filiberti

This bird showed up at our house last Wednesday. We searched our bird book but saw nothing of the sort in it. Upon further research, we have determined that it is a Chukar, a bird native to Asia! It has been introduced in the US as a game bird and has a small population out west. Searching on the internet we found out you can purchase eggs to raise for game birds and then release them. We are only guessing that there is someone in Fairfax who has done this and this bird has survived its release to the wild. Athough Chukars fly, these birds prefer to walk, and we are assuming that it hasn't walked from the western US.

This particular bird has decided to make our house its home. It hasn't left and makes our garage roof its sleeping quarters at night. It pecks around the yard and driveway throughout the day. It eats seeds from the feeder, insects and tears off pieces of greens. It isn't the least bit afraid of us. We can walk right up to it. It is the most peculiar bird but we are getting a kick out of it not wanting to leave. We've even named it.

We are just looking for information on where it might have come from. Is there anyone out there who can shed some light???

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[Henry]

Sharon Meyer from Channel 3 is checking with her experts to see what she can find out.  Right now she is guessing it is an escaped bird of some kind. 

[Henry]

Sharon Meyer just sent me back the following response to the Mystery Bird:

Hi, Sharon,

This is a Chukar Partridge, introduced as a game bird to North America and now thriving in the wild in some places.  It's a Eurasian bird related to pheasants and grouse, and it likes dry, open country.  Like its relatives, it feeds on a range of seeds and nests on the ground.  It's the national bird of Pakistan.  This individual is likely a bird released from captivity during last fall's bird bunting season.

Charlie

Charles C. Browne, Executive Director

The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium

1302 Main Street

St. Johnsbury  VT  05819-2224

802.748.2372 ph.

802.748.1893 fax

www.fairbanksmuseum.org

[Mike Raburn]

My in laws have sporting dogs and they raised chukars up here in Alaska for their field trials.
They breed like rabbits and are cheaper than pheasants and grouse.

I wonder if anyone did a study to see if they wipe out any other species of local birds?

Some dufus up here in Anchorage thought it would be cool to fish for Pike here in the local lakes.

They introduced them and guess what Pike like to eat?

Trout and land locked Silver Salmon.

The city had a problem for a few years stocking the lakes until the Pike were eradicated.