Ring-Necked Pheasant
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Ring-Necked Pheasant
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The typical rooster pheasant weighs just
under 3 lbs
Up to 36 inches
Ring-Necked Pheasant
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The camouflaged hen up to 20 inches
wings beat more than 3 times per second.
48mph at top speed.
Ring-Necked Pheasant
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Pheasants may fly a mile or more and
normally level off at 25 feet.
Rugged Game Bird
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The pheasant is well equipped to
withstand Minnesota’s weathers if
adequate cover and food are available.
It is found in both rural and suburban
areas.
Pheasants are usually most abundant in
farm country containing a mix of row
crops, small grains, hay and pasture.
Rugged Game Bird
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Intensive farming has altered the ideal
habitat mixture.
Corn and soybeans cover the land during
the growing season.
In the winter, barren desert of plowed soil.
Diet is corn, wheat, oats, soybeans, and
wild plant seeds.
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Rugged Game Bird
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A pheasant can survive a week without
food even in severe weather conditions.
The ring-neck is probably the least
susceptible of all game birds to disease
and parasites.
Although pheasants are hardy most live
less than one year.
Rugged Game Bird
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Winter storms, especially sleet followed by
strong winds and cold temps can reduce the
population by ½ in a matter of days.
Predators such as the red fox, great horned
owls, and large hawks take pheasants.
Without adequate winter cover, pheasants
seldom survive a severe storm.
Winter Cover
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During most winter storms cattail marshes
provide good cover.
Other cover in the order of importance is:
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Brushy river bottoms, farm shelterbelts with
evergreens, brushy deciduous woodlots, and
areas of dense shrub cover.
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2011
2010
2009 Hunting Prospects Map
2008
Pheasant Numbers
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The hen pheasant is the key to the ringneck populations.
The population can be sustained only
when sufficient hens survive the winter
and find safe nesting and brood cover.
1 rooster for 19 hens is enough for
reproduction.
Pheasant Numbers
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Since the 60’s-70’s population has declined
about 90% because of loss of safe nesting
cover.
Pheasants usually start nesting in late April or
early May.
2 to 18 eggs are laid over a period of days.
Eggs require 22 – 24 days of incubation.
If hens are forced to abandon their nests, or if it
is destroyed they will re-nest up to 5 times
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Pheasant Numbers
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Re-nesting sometimes produces 50% of
the years chicks.
The chicks feed almost entirely on insects
for the first month.
They then switch to grasses and weed
seeds between five and six weeks of age.
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Pheasant Numbers
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About 40 –70% of the hens eventually raise a
brood.
The remainder are killed by mowers, predators,
or just unsuccessful nester.
Cover Requirements
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Pheasant cover requirements differ throughout
the year.
Safe nesting and winter cover are most
important.
Necessary Cover
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Undisturbed grassland and/legumes
provide cover for nesting, brooding, and
loafing.
Begin nesting as soon as new plant
growth reaches 6-8 inches (peaks mid
May)
Today, because so much land in MN has
been converted to row crops, un-mowed
roadsides may be the most reliable source
of safe pheasant nesting cover.
Necessary Cover
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Studies have shown that un-mowed
roadsides may contain twice as many
nests per acre as other kinds of nesting
cover.
Safe nesting cover must be undisturbed
for at least 35 days and not be mowed
until after July 31, if at all.
Aging Pheasants
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Normally, 7-9 out of every 10 roosters shot in
the fall are young of the year.
Young roosters have dull colored, blunt spurs
less than ¾” in length.
Adult spurs are shiny black, pointed, and over
¾” long.
Another method that can be used is to grab the
lower beak. If the beak bends the bird is a
juvenile.
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Habitat
Management
 Currently MN has an estimated 40,000
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square miles of pheasant range.
Any useful pheasant habitat program must
provide the basics.
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Undisturbed grasslands for nesting, brooding,
and roosting.
Large cattail wetlands (10 acres or more) and/or
10 or more rows of shelterbelts with evergreens
for dependable winter cover.
Corn or sorghum food plots adjacent to
dependable winter cover.
Habitat Management
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Since 1983 MN pheasant hunters, 18
years or older, are required to purchase a
$7.50 pheasant stamp.
Funds generated by this stamp are used
specifically for the Pheasant Habitat
Improvement Program (PHIP)
Over 85% of the PHIP funds are used for
the habitat improvement programs.
Habitat Management
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This include:
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Roadside management, cost-sharing with
landowners for undisturbed grassland cover,
food plots, and large shelterbelts with
evergreens.
The remainder is used to encourage changes
in federal farm legislation favorable to
pheasants and for research and
administration.
Habitat Management
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Currently the Pheasant stamp generates
between $350,000 and $500,000 annually.
The amount of money each county in the
pheasant range receives for habitat
improvements is based on:
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1. % of land in public ownership
2. Amount and distribution of key pheasant
habitat on private lands and the potential
longevity of these areas
Habitat Management
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3. Current pheasant abundance
4. Land rental rates for agricultural land
5. Private land use practices
6. Local government and citizen attitudes
toward wildlife
7. Presence of an active Pheasants Forever
or MN Pheasants chapter
Roadside Management
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About $100,000 stamp dollars and other
wildlife funds go toward enhancing
roadsides for wildlife.
There is over 500,000 acres of roadsides
in MN’s pheasant range.
Not mowing between April 1st-Aug 1st
pheasant numbers can be 2-3 times
higher.
Impact of Federal Farm Programs
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$20,000 of stamp money is used for
development of federal farmland
retirement programs. (CRP, CREP)
This is important because studies have
shown that farmland retired for more than
one year results in an increase in
pheasant #’s.
Habitat Management
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Minnesota’s pheasant population ranges
between 15 and 50 birds per square mile
in the fall.
In the 50’s and 60’s, with more habitat, fall
populations ranged between 50 and 150
per square mile