Land Birds: Game Birds

Plain Chachalaca, Grouses, Partridges, Pheasants, Prairie-Chickens, Ptarmigans, Quails, Turkey

There are 22 species of upland game birds. All are chicken-like ground-dwelling birds that typically forage quietly on plant matter and insects. A federal restoration program for the Masked Bobwhite (subspecies of Northern Bobwhite) is underway in Arizona’s Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Excessive grazing of semiarid grassland habitats was a primary cause of extirpation of the Masked Bobwhite from this region.

Personally, I dislike the term “game bird”. It seems derogatory to designate this native avian group as hunting targets.

Quite a few exotic species of game birds have been introduced to USA. In California, we commonly encounter Chukar in rocky, desert canyons and Ring-necked Pheasant on open grasslands.