Some hunters want to know the age of the upland game birds they took-- whether the birds hatched the pervious spring or if they have reached adulthood. Upland game birds in Montana (with the exception of ring-necked pheasants) can be effectively aged by looking at their wings. Ring-neck pheasant show age differences in their spur.

As a group, the prairie grouse species, mountain grouse and partridge species molt (replace) their wing and tail feather in sequence rather than all at once, as is the case with waterfowl. Each fall, young-of-the year birds grow wing feathers of adult size during the "postjuvenal" (first) molt.

However, in upland game birds other than ring-neck pheasants, the two outer primary feathers on the wing of the young bird are not replaced until on year later and annually thereafter. Thus, the two outer primary feathers on a juvenile bird's wing differ in shape from those of an adult, as well as from other feathers on the wing, being more pointed at the tip and sometimes narrower.

Unlike Montana's other upland game birds, ring-neck pheasants often replace the two outer primary feathers during the postjuvenal molt. As a result, immature birds display primary feather of adult shape and closely resemble adults their first fall.

The spur on the back of a male pheasant's leg often is used as a criterion of age. Early in the fall, an adult pheasant will exhibit a much longer spur than a juvenile. However, the spur of a young male bird continues to grow all fall and some overlap time exists between the spur length of young and old birds late in the fall. Therefore, the color, shape, and texture of the spur during the fall often helps determine the age.

Characteristic Spur	Age
	Adult	Young
Color	very dark	light
Shape	very sharp	usually straight along edges, point more blunt
Texture	hard, glossy surface	soft surface, without luster