Great Numbers of Wild and Large Chickens Used to Roam the Streets of North Portland

The decline in the Wild Jersey chicken population closely mirrors the increase in property values in neighborhoods like Kenton and Overlook, where young families have moved.

When I was a boy, great numbers of wild chickens roamed the streets and fields of North Portland, strutting and shitting all over the place like the Canada geese that infest our waterfront today. Perhaps you remember them, my fellow true Portlanders. They were a variant of the Jersey Giant chicken, with some unusual behavioral adaptations. Historians I've talked to believe they originated at a Sauvie Island farm that was abandoned circa 1880.

The hens formed small, competitive broods of two to four birds. Cockerels that left the nest wandered until they found a clique of other cocks to join. Members of these cliques wandered together, foraged, nurtured each other, crowed proudly at all hours and sometimes terrorized stray felines that lived in the neighborhood. I've spoken with chicken scientists who describe this behavior as unusual, but not altogether unheard of.

Every night, a clique of cocks would return to the home tree where they roosted, which was never far from "their" brood of hens. Throughout my 20s, I invited dates to North Portland to picnic at sunset in an empty lot on Ainsworth or Dekum, and we would wait for the cocks to come marching single file when they were ready to turn in for the night. One by one, they would approach their tree and leap onto the highest branch, and then the next lowest, until all the branches were occupied by one or more plump roosters.

If the girl had an adventurous spirit, and many did, I would suggest we scour nearby bushes for hens. If we found some, we would try to steal their delicious eggs to fry in the morning. I know of few activities more romantic.

You can still find the wild Jersey Giant chickens of North Portland, but they're increasingly rare. The city has a line item in its yearly budget for training and hiring people to capture and euthanize these beautiful birds.

The decline in their population closely mirrors the increase in property values in neighborhoods like Kenton and Overlook, where young families have moved. Neighborhood groups were formed, and city government was pressured to take action to control the populations of wild chickens.

While I understand the mindset of concerned parents who harbor visions of sharp-beaked cocks going berserk and flying talon-first into little baby's pram, chicken scientists have pooh-poohed the notion that this could ever happen. These birds are exceptionally docile to humans, unless you try to steal their eggs. It is an overabundance of municipally sanctioned worry that is causing these wild chickens, once a treasure of North Portland, to disappear forever.

Dr. Mitchell R. Millar is president of the Olde Portland Preservation Society, which holds among its collection the hand-written recipe for the Original Pancake House's Dutch baby, which specifically called for eggs from North Portland's Jersey Giant chickens.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.