Managing for Huns?

C

cyclonenation10

Well-known member
Relative to pheasant and quail, there is very little research (that I have seen) regarding habitat management for hungarian partridge, or huns. In Iowa, they are a bird that I stumble upon probably 1/10 hunts while out looking for pheasants. I haven't found much rhyme or reason to why they are where they are, other than I usually flush them out of cut corn fields when I am not expecting anything to be around. Interestingly, I never seem to flush them in areas I expect to see a pheasant (thick grasses, shelter belts, etc.). It is always in picked crop fields, usually corn. We have recently enrolled over 100 acres of CRP about 3 years ago, which has benefited the pheasants, but I still have never seen a partridge while hunting our farm. I have shot them less than 1/4 mile away, but have never seen one on our property.

Is there anything specifically that can be done to help promote a higher hun population or draw them in to our place? I can't imagine specifically targeting them, since it is so sporadic, but maybe there are things that can be done and mutually benefit pheasant as well as huns?

Anybody ever had any success managing for Huns ?
 
We used to have them until the winter of 96 - 97, that wiped them out since the we have gone to more corn and beans less small grains and less short grass. I have released them a couple of times but that didn't help. If you figure it out let me know I miss them.
 
We are in a similar environments. I did see ONE, likely was nesting, in the CRP the very first year we seeded it (it was somewhat thin then). They like the short cover, I am thinking they must nest and bed in road ditches and terraces. There was a pretty nice covey of them that we would often see within a half mile of our crp, but after last winter, never saw any after that. Lots of snows cover combined with brutal cold temps must have wiped them out. If you could seed some crp with short grasses (not sure what they would be), that might attract them, but not so much for pheasants. I wonder if one planted short grass on the outside perimter of a crp field, maybe 100 feet or so would be enough to bring them in. Maybe lawn type grasses? There must be some studies on what they prefer. I would also love to have a resident flock.
 
remy3424 said:
We are in a similar environments. I did see ONE, likely was nesting, in the CRP the very first year we seeded it (it was somewhat thin then). They like the short cover, I am thinking they must nest and bed in road ditches and terraces. There was a pretty nice covey of them that we would often see within a half mile of our crp, but after last winter, never saw any after that. Lots of snows cover combined with brutal cold temps must have wiped them out. If you could seed some crp with short grasses (not sure what they would be), that might attract them, but not so much for pheasants. I wonder if one planted short grass on the outside perimter of a crp field, maybe 100 feet or so would be enough to bring them in. Maybe lawn type grasses? There must be some studies on what they prefer. I would also love to have a resident flock.
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I've done a fair amount of digging, and from what I can tell I've seen references to brome grass as well as bluegrass as preferred nesting for Huns. I always thought the burn buffers surrounding our CRP (i believe a mix of clovers, rye, etc.) would provide the type of nesting habitat they prefer.

Hoping someone with a little more knowledge might have something to add here!
 
I will believe anything Wind River has to say about partridge. I haven't seen than many partridge when holding a gun in the last 20 years! I guesss they are doing well in some places....not in NW Iowa. Impressive!
 
We see a ton of them while waterfowl hunting in Saskatchewan, and always shoot some while we’re up there. Short stuff around wheat/barley sounds about right.
 
We see several coveys in ND, but almost never any shooting. These were found in Western Sask, big coveys this year. Populations can greatly swing from rare to numerous. Again, Brittman is spot on, very wheat dependent. I have hunted up there since 1986, my favorite bird. The flush is the rush.
 
I see them a lot in Saskatchewan, it seems they are always around old abandon homesteads and hedgerows next to wheat fields. Also see them year after at the same places, could name the coveys according to location where I see them.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Short grass, small grains (barley and wheat), and lots of edges.

Slightly drier better than wet - tough to control that.
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Growing up in Southwest Minnesota in the early70s, there were tons of Huns around. My brother and I shot limits nearly every evening after we got out of school. Lots of edges, small grains, cut silage. Almost every time there were mixed grain and alfalfa in their crop. Very hardy bird, not afraid to spend winter in a plowed field..
 
ND has way too much beans and corn now. It also has changed the field feeding duck patterns in ND.

I do not believe Huns benefit much from expansive CRP either, too much tall grass and no edges.
 
This conversation and topic motivated me to get an account to chime in with my firsts post.

I just moved back to the family farm from Des Moines. We are west of Cedar Rapids IA. Dad is an old school farmer and likes to maximize the lands production (fencerow to fence row), although I am slowly working with him to focus on birds (got some sorghum plots in). We have corn/soybeans, and about 60 head of cattle.
Last year I shot my first hun off our property, after having seen them while plowing under "derechoed" corn. IMO the derecho helped birds, they used down corn for cover and had access to food on the ground. We also had a dry year 2021, which allowed for farmers to bale CRP. Dad cut half of the CRP that runs along our creek (see photo) last year. The short stubble was where they were on the edge of the corn. Fast forward to this year, living on the ranch, and conducting my own roadside survey every morning/evening to and from work, I see more hun than pheasants. I know of 4 different coveys around the area and can consistently find them with the ranger from the road. Just saw one yesterday with 10 birds. I can say one area I've seen them use a lot is a cut hay field. I've watched a covey fly around a hay bale going from the ground to perching up on top, feasting away. Dad mows large alfalfa fields, along with all the neighbors' waterways. What doesn't support the pheasants seams to support the hun, I've backed off on my agenda of convincing him to convert the entire farm to CRP haha. Another thing is, I think they are nesting in the ditches, or, in fence rows fairly close to the road. And they are eating dried out grasses/fountain grass from the ditches. I'm not a wildlife expert but I just want to share the data I've been collecting.

First hun photo, and then a few photos I took after flushing a covey off a dirt road a few days ago. Going to chase them around the standing corn when I get back from N MN grouse trip this October!
 

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I've literally never even seen a Hungarian Partridge. Almost 25 years hunting pheasants in Central MN. The odd thing to me is that the daily bag limit is 6 of them. If there aren't that many around, why is the bag limit still 6? Doesn't make a whole lotta sense.
 
gimruis said:
I've literally never even seen a Hungarian Partridge. Almost 25 years hunting pheasants in Central MN. The odd thing to me is that the daily bag limit is 6 of them. If there aren't that many around, why is the bag limit still 6? Doesn't make a whole lotta sense.
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I've only seen them in NW and SW Minnesota. Not sure what the population is like in the central part of the state. My guess is the central isn't very conducive to there population, habitat wise.
 
I've only hunted them a couple seasons. We were finding them in chukar country of ID, OR, and WA. I was surprised. We were in rocky, arid areas and it was 50-50 huns vs chukar. They seemed to be as adept at the rocky, steep terrain as the chukar. All that I had seen on tv and read about regarding huns was about mostly flat grasslands. Anyone that has hunted chukar aches for finding good upland game on the flat. When my friend said we'd go hunt some huns, I figured some easy flatland walking. LOL.
 
Huns are in good numbers in Mt (weather dependent) and that is where I have shot them and hunted for them. We have found them in the areas that Sharpies are. SO, I think as habitat have changed as one goes east so has the huns. Old timers ( i mean older timers since I am 72) talked about them in NW Nebraska but many years ago. Apparently, they have move west just like a lot of folks :) Good eating bird but tough to hit.
 
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