Anyone else call this a hunkie?
Every region has it’s quirky names for critters. Time to compile the ultimate list of those we shoot at as they fly away. What do they call a ringneck pheasant in Montana? Is a timberdoodle in Vermont a bogsucker in New Brunswick? And what the heck is a mudbat?
Offer up your upland and waterfowl colloquialisms in the comment section … and if you can’t come up with a “real” one, feel free to make one up.
I’ll start:
Woodcock: mudbat, bogsucker, timberdoodle
Pheasant: ditch parrot
Merganser: flying liver
Up yours!: (anything we miss)
Your turn!
Scott Linden Outdoors 
I remember “chucker huntin” years ago – in the burnt brown hills of Eastern Oregon during the months ofJuly and August near our little gold mine overlooking the Snake River and Idaho…in the heat of the sun (about 105 F.) Very fast, flighty, and elusive little teasers and they ALWAYS RAN UPHILL! Good eatin’ tho……..I say the ditch parrot is a nickname for the chucker (a bird that couldn’t fly too far).
Great country. Do you get there any more?
Great to hear from you Chuck. Long time no see. Maybe we can put both of our wires on the ground next fall – hoping to spend time in MT.
Scott,
Here in MT we lump em all as “chickens.”
Then too you got your “big chickens”>sage grouse>aka sage hen, sage chicken, sage bomber, sage cock, cock o’ the plains, to name just several aliases and of course you got your “little chickens”>Hungarian partridge>aka grey partridge, though most of us just call him Hun (expletives deleted); then too you got your sharp-tailed grouse>aka sharpies, flyin carp and TLBs (tough little bastards)…A bit confusing, I know, but…
Northern Shoveler: Pimp Daddy
Bufflehead: What the f&#! was that?
Specklebelly goose: Ribeye in the Sky
Pheasant: Ditch chicken
Optimally we like to go “chicken” hunting. Instead of just ringnecks, we like to go after a shmorgisboard of “chickens.” A good day of shooting “chickens”, includes pheasants, sharp tailed grouse or “sharpies”, which are more shaped like a light bulb when they fly, so we call them “lightbulbs” too. Chukars are also fun to hunt. Ultimately anything that gets away has been “educated”, and thus only becomes more of a trophy, as it is now more “educated” by our superb hunting tactics.
Mmmmmm chickens. Someone said the ones that get away are called “Kevlar.” Good, too.