Chuker

[scott]

Looking at Mark Minner-Lee's photos of the Chuker makes me think it is a
escaped bird. In my opinion the feathers of that bird are way too
disheveled to be a wild bird.

As we all know, winter birds need their feathers to be as perfect as
possible to keep them warm and dry throughout the cold winter.

Just a thought,
Scott Rashid

[BirdNerd's Email]

Would not surprise me in the least - the area that the bird was found in is highly industrial and really lacks any sufficient habitat for bird life in general. Additionally, the Chukar did not flush when a wide variety of urban sounds (car engines rev, people yelling, etc) occurred, nor when several different people came near it unintentionally. Extremely tame.

Despite its' apparent domestication it was still a great bird to watch-

Regards,

Mark Minner-Lee

Sent from my iPad

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[Brandon K. Percival]

All east slope Chukars are escapes from somewhere, hunting clubs or whatever.  The only "wild/countable" Chukars in Colorado, are in western Colorado, in rocky areas, such as Cameo in Mesa County, and a few other spots.

 

Brandon Percival

Pueblo West, CO

[Ted Floyd]

On Monday, February 24, 2014 10:51:08 AM UTC-7, Mark Minner-lee wrote:

Despite its' apparent domestication it was still a great bird to watch-

I completely agree with this sentiment.

A few years ago, a Chukar visited Greenlee Preserve, Boulder County, and it delighted a great throng of people, not just birders.

It's good to keep in mind that so many of our birds receive human assistance of one sort or another. Those gulls we love to watch?--Where would they be without landfills, fast food restaurant parking lots, and deepwater reservoirs in the Front Range metro region? Or how about the geese we love to ponder?--Their numbers are exploding in large part because of changing agricultural practices in the United States. Hummingbirds at feeders?--Love 'em, but they get by with a little help from their (human) friends. The Merlins at City Park in Denver?--They eat the House Sparrows that eat Malayan tapir manure in the Denver Zoo, and that's fine with me. And even the wildest seeming of vagrants, we're increasingly coming to appreciate, are the "beneficiaries" of anthropogenic climate change, e.g., Northern Fulmars getting to the eastern Pacific "thanks" to melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.

I'm cool with all those birds. I especially admire the Chukar for being a plucky survivor, for being beloved by the birding community in Broomfield and beyond, and for its inarguable beauty.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado