Illinois · UplandGray (Hungarian) partridge

Gray partridge is legally hunted under the same statewide North/South zone framework as pheasant and quail, but the species' real biological range in Illinois is much narrower than that legal framework implies, and has been narrow since introduction. Following releases of over 12,000 birds between 1906 and 1927 concentrated in the extreme northeastern counties, the population spread westward and southward but had only reached roughly the northern one-fourth of the state by 1966. It never established statewide. A historical Illinois Hunter Harvest Survey (1989-93) recorded harvest in 20 named northern counties, consistent with that same historically-bounded range. IDNR has published no current (2020s) range map or density survey for this species specifically. Its two-per-year upland survey routes report pheasant and quail figures by name in the annual status reports but never break out gray partridge, and gray partridge has declined sharply continent-wide since the 1960s (Breeding Bird Survey data show a cumulative ~60% North American decline from 1966-2015), so the historical northern-quarter range described here should be read as the last well-documented range boundary, not a current density claim.