The World’s Toughest Upland Gamebird?
Mr. Yamadori is daring you to take him on....
The spring 2010 issue of The Upland Almanac magazine had a short piece about a Japanese gamebird called the yamadori. The writer described it this way: “If you can imagine a bird with the spooky habits of a ruffed grouse and the ground speed of a ringnecked pheasant, combined with the chukar-like habit of running uphill and flying downhill, then you’ve got a typical yamadori.”
Could it get any tougher than that?
Yama apparently means “mountain” and tori (not dori) means “bird.” (Some bonsai trees are also named yamadori – figure that one out!) We believe this bird is also called the copper pheasant. Good-lookin’ critter, ain’t it?
At this point we fail – and will always fail – to see the downside to stocking the world’s toughest bird here in the U.S., so it can go mano a mano with the world most Serious Bird Hunters. But maybe someone’s done that already. Know anyone? If not, anyone want to hunt some birds in Japan?
Here’s a vid showing some hunting (no flushes or shooting) in Yamadori country – which looks grouse-like!
Category: Japan, Yamadori/Copper pheasant
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I hunted Yamadori for 4 years in Japan. I hunt grouse alot too. Much the same except without the cliffs, falling rock, and rivers. It was definately my favorite bird to hunt. It aint nothin like huntin those idiot ringnecks in some corn field. Its a young mans game bird unless you have some tough shorthairs with a bat of mountain goat in them. Then you can hit passing birds above tree tops at 50 mph. a lead of 8 ft min is generally required. Drink alot of sake at end of day and dont forget the pain killers. While over there shoot some Kigi’s out of the rice patties. watch out for the little vipers,like a little rattle snake. Nasty things. They are beautiful birds, when the sun hits them its like 15000 copper pennies flashing in the sun. Mine looks beautiful on the shelf next to my Kigi and my dozen sub-species of ducks I shot over there. good luck
I hunted in Japan for six years and was lucky enough to bag three Yamadori. You won’t soon forget it if you are lucky enough to get one. The terrain where they live is unbelievably rugged–mountain sides nearly straight up and down, usually very rocky or soft/slick dirt, and very dense trees/brush. You are usually completely out of breath when one gets up, hear them for only a very short time, and lucky to get a quick glimpse. They fly very fast so you normally don’t even have time to think about raising your gun before they are totally gone. They most certainly deserve a lot of respect. I have two of the beatuiful birds on my wall and gave one to a good friend in North Platte, Ne.