RING-NECKED PHEASANTS
What is a ring-necked pheasant? Well, it
is a bird and, I might add, a very tasty one. Yes, it is clean for us to eat
and, in fact, if you hunt them yourself or get them from someone who does hunt,
they are quite healthy since there is not usually a whole lot of fat on them.
Quite a few folks will just cook the breast meat as the legs can be quite tough
(much like a wild turkey).
It is actually the state bird of South
Dakota and is only one of three state birds which are not species native to the
United States. In this case, the pheasant is native to Asia but very common here
in our country now. It is a very popular “game bird.”
When man imports creatures to lands
where they don’t naturally exist, he often brews trouble. Now we should know
this anyway, right? I mean, if Yahweh wanted something in a certain place,
wouldn’t He have put it there? You’ve heard it said, “If Yahweh meant for men to
fly, we’d have wings.” Now the only people that say that, of course, are those
who do not want to fly in airplanes and we also know that Yahweh gave people the
means, intelligence and wherewithal to make airplanes, too!
If you check the impact and spread of
the rabbit in Australia, the red deer in New Zealand, and the English sparrow
and starling in the United States, you may find that they became quite
substantial “pests.” The ring-neck pheasant is an import, too, but unlike the
species mentioned above, it hasn’t become a pest. In fact, this Asian native has
proven to be a fine member of North America’s wildlife community. The ringneck
is the hunter’s bird—imported, stocked and transferred to suitable habitat
throughout the nation by wildlife departments. Today, the ringneck benefits us
all, providing in-the-field enjoyment to hunters, birdwatchers and nature lovers
of all types (and let’s not forget they are quite tasty!).
 Some folks raise pheasants on their own
property in a small, fully fenced-in area (even fenced at the top). They are
raised for hunting purposes where they then transport the fully grown, matured
birds to an area for hunters to hunt them. In some areas, in Pennsylvania for
instance, if you put pheasants out to hunt and do not get them, they are “free”
birds. You are not allowed to catch them with nets, for example, to put them out
another day. Now if they were to fly back into a pen, that would be different
because they came back of their own accord.
The species is found throughout the
United States except in the southeast (too hot?), parts of the southwest (too
hot?) and the far north (too cold?). Good populations exist in farming regions
of the Midwest and the northeast. The ringneck is an abundant permanent resident
in Pennsylvania’s agricultural areas. The ringneck’s scientific name is
Phasianus colchiucus (hmm, can you pronounce that?), and it is a member of the
Phasianidae, or pheasant, family. Closely related to quails and partridges, the
ringneck belongs to the order Galliformes, which also includes turkeys, quail,
grouse, ptarmigan (now there’s one to look up) and prairie chickens.
Biology
An adult male weighs 2 ½ to 3 ½ pounds
and an adult female 2 pounds. Males are called roosters, cocks or cockbirds;
females are hens. The standing height of a rooster is about one foot and its
length, from beak to tail tip, averages 36 inches. Hens are slightly smaller. A
pheasant is long-legged and rangy through the body with a long, pointed tail
(about 20-23 inches long!) and short, rounded wings.
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Can you see the difference
between the male and female? Which one is which? |
A hen’s plumage is a subtle,
camouflaging mixture of brown, black and gray. In contrast, a rooster’s feathers
are a beautiful mix of reds, browns, golds and black. A rooster has scarlet
cheek patches, a white neck ring (hmmm, think that is where “ring-necked” came
from?) usually interrupted in the front, and iridescent greenish-black head,
golden-brown breast, and a greenish-gray or bluish rump and lower back.
Tailfeathers of both sexes are brown with black bars.
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This is one of many types of
"bird dogs." They are called "Brittany Spaniels." |
The crowing of a rooster is distinctive:
a loud double squawk followed by rapid muffled wingbeats which may or may not be
audible, depending on distance. Males crow most often during mating season,
especially at sunrise and sunset; they may also emit a loud cackle when flushed
into flight. Their sound is almost like a loud, harsh "koork-KOK." Hens are
normally silent. Did you ever hear the phrase “flushed into flight”? When
hunting for pheasants, dogs are used to point where the bird is, then (ideally
on your command) they move in on the bird “flushing” it; in other words, getting
so close to make it fly (or run at times). Some bird dogs will retrieve it when
shot and some will even “retrieve” it when no one shot, but the dog will get it
and bring it back to you.
Pheasants eat weed seeds (ragweed,
smartweed, foxtails, etc.), grains (corn, wheat, barley, oats, beans and
buckwheat), fruits and berries (raspberries, dewberries, strawberries,
thornapples, barberry), shoots, leaves, grasses, rose hips and insects. They
find a lot of their food by scratching through ground litter. Gee, no wonder
they are clean to eat! Look at what they eat….
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See how he is hiding? |
Like most birds, ringnecks have sharp
senses of hearing and sight. Extremely wary in autumn, they stick to dense cover
when hunted heavily. During spring and summer they can be seen strutting across
freshly mowed fields and along roadsides. When pursued, pheasants would rather
run than fly (remember how we said some hunting dogs will bring back a bird
nobody shot at?), dodging nimbly into heavy cover—brambles, honeysuckle, or
multiflora rose. When cornered or surprised, they take to the air. Strong fliers
over short distances, they attain a maximum speed of 45 m.p.h. in the open.
Outside of breeding season (when roosters stake out individual territories) and
brood-raising periods, pheasants are relatively gregarious (here’s another word
to look up), roosting in groups. In Pennsylvania, pheasants often roost in
trees. The averages pheasant ranges within one square mile.
Roosters claim individual breeding
territories each spring. A rooster’s courtship display includes spreading his
tail and wings and strutting; his red cheek patches are swollen, his head is
held low, and his neck feathers are ruffled. With persistence, he will collect a
harem of up to a dozen hens (4-5 females per male is probably the average
overall, with 8-12 hens per rooster in our primary range). Breeding begins in
late March or early April and may extend into August. The male does not help
incubate eggs or raise young.
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Pheasant Tracks: Next time
you are out in a field, watch for tracks and see if you can identify
pheasants in your area. |
Nesting occurs from April to August. A
hen selects a nest site on the ground in a hayfield, a weedy field, an overgrown
pasture, or a brushy fencerow. A natural hollow (or one scraped out by the hen)
is lined with weeds, grasses and leaves. Surrounding vegetation helps conceal
both the nest and the laying or brooding bird.
The female lays 6-15 eggs (average is
10-12) over a two-week period. Eggs measure approximately 1 1/3 x 1 2/3 inches
and are light tan to pale olive green in color. Incubation is usually postponed
until the last egg is laid, so all eggs receive equal incubation time and hatch
on the same day. If eggs are destroyed by farm operations, predators, fires or
floods, hens may renest, some even making three attempts.
The eggs hatch after 23 or 24 days of
incubation. Most clutches hatch by early July. Like the young of other
gallinaceous (Gallinaceous birds are heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or
game birds) species, pheasant chicks are precocial (which means “covered with
down, their eyes open”), able to run about and eat as soon as their down dries.
Chicks depend on the hen to shelter them from cold and rain (she does this by
brooding, or sitting on top of them). Hens brood at night until young are able
to roost in trees. Instinctively, chicks squat and remain motionless at a signal
given by the hen; their coloration, tan with darker brown streaking, conceals
them well. Foxes, raccoons, crows, weasels, house cats, dogs and hawks prey on
the young.
The hen guides her chicks in
food-finding. Insects, plentiful and high in protein, are a good early food. By
two weeks of age, chicks can fly short distances; after six weeks, their adult
plumage starts to come in; and by autumn, birds of the year look like adults.
Young roosters can be told from older males by the length and hardness of their
spurs, appendages growing out from the backs of their legs. In young birds, the
spurs are relatively soft, blunt and short (a quarter-inch or less). Older
roosters have hard, sharp spurs up to an inch in length from spur tip to the
front of the leg. (Believe me, they HURT, too, if they get you with their spurs
when you try to catch them inside their pens!)
 In winter, pheasants may form flocks.
During inclement weather, they stick to thick protective cover of conifers,
brushy sloughs, or forests overgrown with vegetation.
Population
The first successful pheasant
introduction to North America was a release of approximately 30 birds in
Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1881. Many of America’s ringnecks have descended
from these 30.
Habitat
Prime pheasant habitat is farmland that
has occasional weed fields; blackberry, sumac and honeysuckle patches; swamp
edges and marshy depressions grown up in cattails, grass and sedge; and
overgrown drainage ditches. Clean-farming practices, where every bit of ground
is put into production can reduce the diversity of food and cover which
pheasants prefer.
Winter food and cover are important to
local pheasant populations. Good foods are thornapples, apples, rose hips, skunk
cabbage, ragweed, burdock, grapes, grasses, green vegetation and Japanese
barberry; these, along with grain (especially waste corn left by mechanical
harvesters) help birds over winter. Pheasants locate food in areas melted or
blown free of snow, or by scratching. Pines provide excellent cover for roosting
and daytime resting. Pheasants also seek out densely vegetated marsh or
creekside areas during bitter weather.
Farmers can manage their land to produce
more pheasants. Strips of corn may be left unharvested (5-10 rows next to cover
are adequate); unpicked soybeans make good summer, fall and winter cover, and
the beans are eaten from fall to spring. Forest edges can be cut to increase
low, brushy growth, which makes good cover. Autumn olive, honeysuckle and pine
plantings also improve cover. However, these things, of themselves, will not
increase the pheasant population. Safe nesting cover will. This is the most
important factor when bird numbers fluctuate widely from year to year. To reduce
nesting losses, farmers should delay their first alfalfa cutting until the end
of June.
Given adequate food and protective
cover, ringnecks can pull through rough winters. They are hardy birds and, like
all wildlife, have keen survival instincts.
(A special thank-you to the
Pennsylvania Game Commission for permitting us to use information they have
gathered over the years!)
HalleluYAH!
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