Idaho Falls Chukars

11

Posted 2026 June 12

I'm guessing a fair number of readers have no idea what a chukar is, or even how the word is pronounced. I'll start with the pronunciation. You can put stress on the first syllable, in which case it sounds like chucker, or you can put stress on the second syllable, in which case the chu sounds like the cha- in cha-ching! and the kar sounds like the word car. The team, from what I can find, goes with the chucker pronunciation. I'm not sure if this is intended to be a sly reference to chucking the baseball. It's the sort of word play I can see a team engaging in, but I can't find any evidence of this being the intent. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

As for what it is, it's a kind of bird. Specifically, it is a kind of partridge native to Asia. Its native range includes Turkey, most of the Middle East that isn't on the Arabian Peninsula, the Caucuses, most of the Stans, northern India, Tibet, and a strip of China running roughly from Tibet to Beijing. The bird has also been introduced all over the damn place: Chile and Argentina, New Zealand, Hawaii, an island off the coast of South Africa, and (as you've probably guessed) the continental U.S. and Canada. As you can imagine, it's a robust little bastard. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the chukar as "Least Concern", which is environmentalist-ese for "We couldn't care less about these little shits. We've got bigger fish to fry. Or we would if we were in the habit of frying fish, which we're not because we're environmentalists. Okay, maybe salmon. There's a shit-ton of salmon out there, too. And salmon's tasty. Um, I'm sorry, we seem to have gotten off the subject. Yeah, chukars. Metric shit-tons of the little buggers. Totally not worried about them."

Incidentally, if you're wondering why chukars were introduced to the U.S. and Canada, it's so people could shoot at them. Seriously. That's how little the IUCN cares about them. People brought these birds to America specifically to be shot at and the IUCN didn't say a word. Well, okay, maybe the IUCN's silence was actually because they didn't exist yet when the chukar was brought to North America. But they apparently haven't said anything since, either. So, hunters, you can shoot these things with a clear conscience. Unless, of course, you're the sort of person that can't harm any living creature without feeling guilty. And I'm cool with that, but I point out that I specifically said, "So, hunters [emphasis added], you can shoot these things with a clear conscience," and if you can't harm any living creature without feeling guilty then you're probably not a hunter and I wasn't talking to you. If you're a hunter who can't harm any living creature without feeling guilty, then in all honesty I think you need to consider finding a new hobby.

All in all I do like the name and the logo. It's a unique name, and while partridges may not be the most intimidating bird on the planet, neither are cardinals or orioles and no one says anything about teams being named after them. As for the logo, it's one of those that finds a way to show confidence without looking ridiculously aggressive. The animals in some logos look so aggressive that you can't help but think they're actually pushovers that are bluffing. This guy looks legitimately confident. He doesn't care what you think of him, because he knows he's the shit, and he figures that if you don't know it you'll find out soon enough.

Also, as animals in logos go it's pretty accurate. A grey crown, black stripe across the eyes, and white beneath that strips? That's what chukars look like. The beak should be reddish-orange rather than red, but that's a minor detail. The only real innaccuracy is the human-like eyes. But even here they get some of the details right: chukars don't have eyebrows but they do have a thin circle around the eye, and that circle is the same reddish-orange as the beak. All in all I'm willing to let the eyes slide.

Finally, I like the total lack of additional fluff in the logo. There's no circular background, nor any other background. There are no baseball elements. They don't even feel the need to put the name in the logo, something I wish more teams would have the confidence to do. The team is called the chukars, and the logo is the head of a chukar. What more do you need? Nothing. That's what more you need. Absolutely nothing.

Final Score: 11 points.
Penalties: Humanoid, 30 pts.
Bonuses: Name, -10 pts, Graphic, -9 pts.