Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Throughout an upland game season, the Department receives thousands of envelopes containing wings, feet and feathers. It is impossible to respond to all the questions we get regarding age and sex of birds.
While there are always exceptions to rules, this guide will give hunters a good basic instruction on what to look for to determine age and/or sex of upland game birds in the bag. We get the information we need via wing envelopes. For hunters, it's not critical to know whether the partridge in your hand is a male or female, but having the knowledge to tell the difference can only add to the enjoyment of the hunt.