Chukar Alectoris chukar

Identification Tips:

• Length: 10 inches
• Sexes similar
• Stocky, ground-dwelling quail with short, rounded wings
• Short, thick, red bill
• Red eyering
• Black band above bill, through the eye and across upper neck
• Buff face and throat enclosed by black necklace
• Blue-gray crown, nape, breast and back, with a brownish suffusion on the back
• White belly
• Black bars on pale flanks
• Rufous outer tail feathers visible in flight
• Red legs and feet
• Immatures similar to adults

Similar species:

Gray Partridge has a rusty face without a black necklace, a duller bill and reddish bars on the flanks.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.