| Window | Dates | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Season | 15 SEP 2026 – 31 JAN 2027 | 139d |
As publishedSep 15, 2026-Jan 31, 2027
Statewide hunt area.Longest upland season window in WY, spanning into the following calendar year.
Wyoming's own species management plan (WGFD Chapter 16, Chukar and Gray Partridge) states chukar and gray partridge together ‘are found in suitable habitats throughout the northern two thirds of Wyoming,’ with ‘the densest populations … in the Bighorn Basin and east of the Bighorn Mountains’ — the same core historically stocked from the species' 1930s introduction and the Department's own Story bird farm (operated 1930s–1977). Beyond that shared core, chukar has its own distinct secondary sites: a population established near Flaming Gorge Reservoir from a 1998 Nevada-stock release, and ‘a few scattered flocks … in Jackson Hole and Star Valley’ at the far northwest/west edge of the state. The species is a WGFD-confirmed breeding resident statewide (Uncommon resident, per the Department's own state bird list) and the season is open statewide with no sub-state hunt-area split, so this regional pattern is a density/habitat signal layered under a uniform regulatory area, not a regulatory boundary itself.
Wyoming's 2026 Hunt Forecast, published August 31, reports chukar down in two regions: Casper says numbers declined substantially in 2025, and Cody expects fewer birds this year on habitat hit by drought and wildfire. Those two carry more weight than a two-region count suggests. WGFD's own species chapter puts Wyoming's densest chukar populations in the Bighorn Basin and east of the Bighorn Mountains, which is Cody and Casper country, so the declines are being reported where the birds actually are rather than at the edges of the range. It fits the year, too: 2026 gave Wyoming its warmest and driest winter on record followed by an equally dry spring. Expect to cover more ground than usual for the same number of coveys. Gray partridge got the same reduced read from the same two regions, and it shares chukar's statewide season and daily bag, so switching birds isn't the fallback here that it would be in a better year.
Reduced numbers reported in the Casper and Cody regions, which hold Wyoming's densest chukar populations, on a record warm and dry winter.
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