As publishedSeptember 26 - December 31, 2026
Also called 'partridge'; VT's most widely available upland game bird, found statewide with Northeast Kingdom offering the best hunting. Hunters must be able to distinguish from the protected spruce grouse (see spruce-grouse entry) — dates and bag limit corroborated identically across VFWD's live seasons table, VFWD's upland-game-birds page, and the eRegulations digest.
VFWD's real, still-emerging research effort is an AI/acoustic drumming-count program (audio recorders at WMAs like Fred Johnson WMA, with a machine-learning model classifying the sound data), funded through 2026 with VFWD seeking funding to extend it through 2028. Active and confirmed ongoing as of a May 2026 press capture, but still in a testing/model-refinement phase per VFWD's own biologist -- no published annual population index or hunter-facing forecast exists yet.