Class: Aves

Order: Galliformes

Family: Phasianidae

Genus: Phasianus

Species: colchicus

Ring-necked Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

Description

Range and Distribution

Reproductive characteristics

Habitat Requirements

Diet

Predators

Management

Literature Cited

Habitat for the ring-necked pheasant includes row crops, strip cover, grassed terraces, pastures, waterways, fencerows, non-tilled cornfields, tilled or non–tilled soybean fields, and roadsides (Payne and Bryant 1994). Pheasants prefer grasslands. Much of the ring-necked pheasants habitat has been reduced due to the farming industries growth (Meyer 2000). As farming increases many roadsides, ditches, and brushy cover may be reduced or eliminated (Meyer 2000). This reduction has condensed ring-necked pheasant nesting grounds and predator cover (Meyer 2000). Since the 1980’s, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) (http://www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/crp.htm) benefited to pheasants giving them new thick vegetation cover (Meyer 2000). Ungrazed playa lakes throughout the Panhandle also provide habitat for this introduced bird (Meyer 2000). Cornfields and sunflower fields provide good cover and forage for pheasants. Their nests are composed of available vegetation like grasses, leaves, weed stalks, fine twigs, cornhusks, and sometimes breast feathers (Giudice and Ratti 2001). Initial nests occur in dense areas of dry grasses and forbs (Giudice and Ratti 2001). Roadways should not be mowed until after the nesting season, because they can encourage pheasants to use them for nesting grounds (Payne and Bryant 1994). Pheasants will renest in hay fields once they have grown tall and dense enough (Giudice and Ratti 2001). Green wheat and wheat stubble is key in West Texas for nesting cover. Desirable herbaceous cover is used during brood-rearing season (Giudice and Ratti 2001). Their nests are usually <1km from their winter range, and is around the edges of their pre-nesting range and territory (Giudice and Ratti 2001).