Just don’t expect to come back from a chachalaca hunt with an entertaining story for your buddies around the campfire, Perez added. “You didn’t take your dog, and it wasn’t a beautiful morning. The sun wasn’t setting,” he said, describing scenes from a more idyllic hunt. “You have to leave all that stuff out. But you can say, ‘I did it.’”
I had never shot a chachalaca. Heck, I didn’t even know you could hunt chachalacas until this assignment came along. I’d heard the birds’ cacophonous calls only once—although I didn’t lay eyes on them—while strolling the native gardens of Quinta Mazatlan, an urban bird and plant sanctuary in McAllen.