Index of Species Information
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
Introductory
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Tesky, Julie L. 1995. Phasianus colchicus. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station,
Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available:
www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/animals/bird/paco/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION :
PHCO
COMMON NAMES :
ring-necked pheasant
pheasant
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for the ring-necked pheasant is
Phasianus colchicus Linnaeus. There are 30 subspecies recognized
worldwide. The ring-necked pheasants now established in North America
have come from China (P. colchicus torquatus) and England (where the
subspecies P. c. colchicus, P. c. torquatus, and others have been
introduced and have hybridized). The ring-necked pheasant in North
America is a hybrid of several subspecies and is included, therefore,
only under the specific name [1].
ORDER :
Galliformes
CLASS :
Bird
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Ring-necked pheasants are native to Asia. They have been introduced
into North America and are now established from southern British
Columbia and central Alberta to northern Minnesota, southern Ontario,
southwestern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. They occur, at
least locally, as far south as southern interior California, Utah,
northern and southeastern Texas, southern Illinois, Pennsylvania, and
North Carolina [1,12,17]. Ring-necked pheasants also occur in Hawaii
[1].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES33 Southwestern shrubsteppe
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES41 Wet grasslands
FRES42 Annual grasslands
STATES :
| AZ |
AR |
CA |
CO |
HI |
ID |
IL |
IA |
KS |
ME |
| MD |
MI |
MN |
MO |
MT |
NE |
NV |
NH |
NJ |
NY |
| NC |
ND |
OH |
OK |
OR |
PA |
SD |
TX |
UT |
VT |
| VA |
WA |
WY |
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K024 Juniper steppe woodland
K047 Fescue - oatgrass
K048 California steppe
K049 Tule marshes
K050 Fescue - wheatgrass
K051 Wheatgrass - bluegrass
K053 Grama - galleta steppe
K054 Grama - tobosa prairie
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
K057 Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
K058 Grama - tobosa shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
K065 Grama - buffalograss
K066 Wheatgrass - needlegrass
K067 Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
K068 Wheatgrass - grama - buffalograss
K069 Bluestem - grama prairie
K070 Sandsage - bluestem prairie
K074 Bluestem prairie
K075 Nebraska Sandhills prairie
K076 Blackland prairie
K077 Bluestem - sacahuista prairie
K085 Mesquite - buffalograss
K088 Fayette prairie
SAF COVER TYPES :
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
238 Western juniper
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Ring-necked pheasants commonly occur in open plant communities dominated
by grasses, wild as well as agricultural. In the Midwest, ring-necked
pheasants often occupy alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and red clover
(Trifolium pratense) hayfields, particularly when these crops are grown
in combination with smooth brome (Bromus inermis) [26,44]. In Nebraska
ring-necked pheasants are commonly found in little bluestem
(Schizachyrium scoparium), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and
mixed-grass communities [26]. Ring-necked pheasants in North Dakota and
South Dakota often occur in wheatgrass-alfalfa communities [44].
Several studies in Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin, and New Mexico have shown
that communities dominated by switchgrass provide excellent habitat for
ring-necked pheasants [23,26,36,57]. In Iowa, ring-necked pheasant nest
densities in switchgrass averaged 68.4 per 100 hectares, much higher
than the densities of 39.8 per 100 hectares observed in
alfalfa-orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) [57]. In New Mexico,
ring-necked pheasants often occupy communities dominated by switchgrass,
big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii var. gerardii), Indiangrass
(Sorghastrum nutans), and little bluestem [36]. On Conservation Reserve
Program lands in the Texas southern High Plains, ring-necked pheasants
inhabit blue grama-Kleingrass (Bouteloua gracilis-Panicum coloratum),
blue grama-sideoats grama (B. curtipendula), and blue grama-plains
bluestem (Bothriochola ischaemum) communities [9,10].
Ring-necked pheasants often thrive in agricultural areas. In South
Dakota, Trautman [58] reported that ring-necked pheasants are found in
abundance only in areas where 50 percent or more of the land is under
cultivation. In Colorado, southwestern Nebraska, and Kansas, wheat
stubble provides good habitat [44].
Thickets, interspersed with native grasslands and agricultural lands,
are important cover; cattails (Typha spp.) and bulrushes (Scirpus spp.)
also provide cover [36]. In South Dakota, plant communities used by
ring-necked pheasants include wild plum (Prunus spp.) and chokecherry
(P. virginiana) thickets, brush-willow (Salix spp.) thickets, farm
orchards and hedges, small stands of brush with an understory of giant
ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya) or wild sunflower (Helianthus spp.), the
leeward sides of groves of willows, and clumps of shrubby growth with an
understory of brome or quackgrass (Elytriga repens) along roadsides
[58].
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
BIOLOGICAL DATA AND HABITAT REQUIREMENTS
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
TIMING OF MAJOR LIFE HISTORY EVENTS :
Breeding season - Ring-necked pheasants are usually polygamous but
some males are monogamous. In the spring it is common to see one male
with several females [7]. In Montana cocks are capable of breeding by
late February and hens can lay eggs by late March. Winter weather,
which often prevails through March in much of Montana, may delay mating
attempts until April. Cocks defend breeding territories or "crowing
territories," and crow to attract hens. The boundaries of a "crowing
territory" may shift as the season progresses [58]. Cocks mate with any
receptive hen that enters their territory. In Montana crowing begins
in late March, reaches a peak in May, and then gradually subsides.
Sporadic crowing may be heard through July. Cocks and hens are sexually
active until about August 1 [60].
Age at first reproduction - Ring-necked pheasants are capable of
breeding the spring of the year after they hatch [60].
Nesting and incubation - Before nesting, hens frequently lay eggs at
random or deposit them in "dump" nests (a nest where eggs are layed but
are not incubated and do not hatch). Several hens may lay eggs in a
single dump nest and then abandon them. As many as 50 eggs have been
found in a single dump nest. The incidence of random egg laying and
laying in dump nests appears to increase as the local ring-necked
pheasant population increases [60].
After constructing a nest, the hen lays 6 to 15 eggs, usually 10 to 12
[7]. The hen lays one egg per day until the clutch is complete.
Incubation begins after the entire clutch is laid. Ring-necked pheasant
hens often renest after a clutch is destroyed. The hen will continue
nesting attempts until she successfully hatches a clutch, loses a clutch
late in incubation, or can no longer produce eggs that season. The
average number of eggs laid per clutch decreases by one or more with
each successive attempted renest. An average first clutch of 10 eggs
may be reduced by half in the third or fourth renest attempt [60]. The
eggs are incubated by the hen for 23 to 25 days [7]. Each hen hatches
only one brood during the breeding season, but because of renesting
attempts, broods of many different ages can be seen throughout the
season [60].
Ring-necked pheasants sometimes lay eggs in nests of other birds such as
gray partridge (Perdix perdix), ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), and
blue-winged teal (Anas discors). Few of these eggs hatch, and the
chicks that do hatch probably do not survive long [7,60].
Egg-laying dates - Egg dates recorded by Bent [7] are as follows:
Washington and Oregon - April 13-June 17
California - May 3-June 10
Michigan - April 17
Massachusetts - May 16
Pennsylvania - May 12 and June 4
In British Columbia, egg dates from 189 clutches ranged from April 21 to
July 27, with 51 percent recorded between May 10 and June 8 [12]. The
earliest recorded ring-neck pheasant nest in Montana was found on April
15. Nesting activity peaks during the first half of May, although this
varies somewhat with location. In Montana, the latest nesting activity
was recorded on September 13 [60].
Fledging - The hen leads her chicks away from the nest as soon as their
feathers have dried [7,58]. Within a few days they start developing
wing feathers, and are capable of making short flights by the time they
are 2 weeks old. The downy coat is completely replaced by juvenile
feathers within 6 weeks [58]. The chicks are cared for by the hen until
they are 6 to 8 weeks old [7,58].
Life span - Mortality of young ring-necked pheasants is high. The
mortality between hatching and 2 weeks of age may be as high as 25
percent and may increase to almost 50 percent by 9 weeks of age. The
main causes of chick loss are chilling rain or hail storms, predation,
road traffic and farming operations [60]. Only about 3 out of 10 chicks
survive to adulthood the spring after hatching. A 2-year-old is a
comparatively old ring-necked pheasant. Birds 3 or more years old
usually make up 5 percent or less of the population. Complete
population turnover (length of time for all birds hatched during any 1
year to die) generally occurs within 5 years [60].
PREFERRED HABITAT :
Quality habitat for ring-necked pheasants provides adequate food, with
cover in close proximity. Ring-necked pheasant habitat is often
associated with areas of high soil fertility where agricultural crops
and other vegetation provide the basic food and cover requirements [12].
Cultivated farmland interspersed with patches of brush or woodlots often
provides some of the best habitat for ring-necked pheasants.
Ring-necked pheasants also inhabit fallow fields, brushy pastures,
roadside hedgerows, cutover lands, brackish and freshwater marshes,
lakeshores, open woodlands, dense forests, meadows, beaches, and city
parks and yards [12,17,60].
Ring-necked pheasants breed in most habitats where cover is available
except dense woodlands, but prefer agricultural areas in shrubby areas
interspersed with fields, grass and grain crops. Nests are often
located at the base of clumps of grass, shrubs, or fenceposts, among
tall grasses, reeds, cattails, and sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), next to
logs, buildings and construction equipment, or under small trees and
brush piles. Nests are frequently located close to sources of water.
They form small depressions in the ground and are composed of grasses,
feathers, weed stalks, twigs, and rootlets [12]. Fencerows, roadside
ditches, and field edges that are vegetated provide travel corridors for
ring-necked pheasants [60].
COVER REQUIREMENTS :
Ring-necked pheasants require specific cover for different phases of
their life cycle. Therefore, cover types must be interspersed to insure
that all types are available throughout the year [44].
Nesting cover - Nesting cover must be dense enough to prevent detection
of the nest and incubating hens by predators. An abundance of nesting
cover in early spring is especially important for successful nesting
since early clutches and broods are larger than later ones [60]. Nests
located in undisturbed residual cover (plant vegetation remaining from
the previous year) have the best chance of hatching successfully
[58,60]. Grass-forb stands that are at least 8 to 10 inches (20-25 cm)
high in spring, preferably more than 12 to 14 inches (30-36 cm) high,
are attractive for nesting by ring-necked pheasants. The grass should
be upright, offer partial overhead concealment, and have high stem
densities in parts of the field, with some dead plant material on the
ground surface [21]. Residual cover also provides important cover for
cocks on "crowing territories" [45]. Managing areas for residual cover
has been described by Frank [21].
Throughout the initial one-third (April to mid-May) of the nesting
season in South Dakota, nesting cover consists entirely of residual
vegetation [58]. Residual cover of weeds and grasses in roadsides,
railroad rights-of-way, fencerows, shelterbelts, tree groves, weedy
grain stubble, ungrazed or lightly grazed pastures, marsh edges, stream
and ditchbanks, and abandoned farmsteads all provide good nesting cover
[58,60]. In Colorado, southwestern Nebraska, and Kansas, wheat stubble
provides good residual cover for nesting [44]. Grass or alfalfa
hayfields often furnish nesting cover until mowing time, but then become
deathtraps for hens, eggs, and chicks [60]. Studies throughout the
Midwest have shown that alfalfa and red clover hayfields, particularly
when coplanted with smooth brome, provide preferred nesting cover for
ring-necked pheasants [26,44].
In south-central Nebraska, 82 percent of all ring-necked pheasant nests
were established where vegetation made its maximum growth during the
spring months. Thirty-two percent of all nests were found in alfalfa,
27 percent were in cool-season grass stands, and 23 percent where found
in winter wheat fields. Mixed assemblages of forbs, grasses, and
semiaquatic plants occurred at 16 percent of all nest sites. Vegetation
complexes of mixed warm- and cool-season grasses and complexes that were
entirely composed of warm-season species occurred at slightly more than
2 percent of all nest sites [3].
In many states, roadsides provide the most important nesting sites
[4,44,49]. In eastern South Dakota, roadsides comprised only 3 percent
of the study area, but 14 percent of all ring-necked pheasant were
hatched in roadside vegetation [49]. A Nebraska study revealed that
more than 25 percent of the ring-necked pheasants produced on the study
area came from roadsides, which made up 1.4 percent of the area [4].
When roadside cover is not mowed from year to year, nesting use and
hatching success often increase substantially [35,55]. Several
researchers reported ring-neck pheasant preference for nesting in
narrow, strip cover versus large blocks [23,66,67].
Brood cover - Brood cover must conceal the hen and her brood, as well as
provide food while chicks are small [60]. In New Mexico, Knight and
Dixon [36] reported that ideal brood cover is layered with varied
screening ability: thick from the ground level to 8 inches (20 cm)
high, and fairly heavy between 8 to 20 inches (20-51 cm) above ground.
Twenty- to 40-inch (51-102 cm)-high cover should be thicker than in the
surrounding area [36]. Broods are found in roads and open areas within
and along field edges in early morning when grass is wet with dew; in
relatively short, open cover when feeding; in taller, heavier cover for
loafing during the midday; and in unmowed grassland or weedy areas for
nighttime roosting [58,60]. Dusting and grit-picking sites tend to be
in more exposed areas, usually adjacent to dense escape cover [60].
Brood cover and home range change as chicks mature. During the early
portion of the brood-rearing season, in June and July, ring-necked
pheasant chicks use the same cover types that are important for nesting.
Brood-rearing areas center around hatching sites during the 3 weeks
after chicks hatch. In Montana initial brood-rearing areas generally
range from 5 to 10 acres (2-4 ha), and in South Dakota from 10 to 30
acres (4-12 ha) [58,60]. Outward movements from hatching sites lengthen
as mobility improves with age. In South Dakota, home ranges average 71
acres (29 ha) by late August, with alfalfa and grain harvests causing
shifts in young ring-necked pheasant home-range locations [58].
Favored summer feeding places for broods are recently cut hay or grain
fields, although some feeding occurs in all types of cover. Cover
consisting of medium-density vegetation is used more commonly in summer
than light or dense cover [37,58]. Woody cover is valuable to broods
for shade in hot weather [47,58,60]. Small trees and shrubs receive
more use than tall trees or hedgerows of shelterbelts [47,58]. Row
crops such as corn, sorghum, and soybeans are not used extensively until
August, when the grain and much of the stubble have been harvested
[3,37,47,58]. Use of row-crop fields, particularly corn and sorghum
fields, for resting, feeding and dusting, normally begins early in
August and continues through September and October. By then most young
have dissociated from broods and adults, and young in small groups or
loosely organized flocks more readily use all available cover [3,58].
Loafing and roosting cover - During spring and summer ring-necked
pheasants loaf in vegetation suitable for escape as well as other needs.
Choice of loafing sites is usually random among prevalent plant
communities. Brush tickets, shrubrows, and tall weed patches are
favored on hot summer days for shade. In South Dakota, mixed
alfalfa-grass communities are used heavily during the latter part of
spring [58].
Woody vegetation is preferred for loafing in the winter. During this
season, ring-necked pheasants prefer loafing sites that provide overhead
protection, rather than the open canopy often used for summer roosting.
Use of loafing and roosting sites is influenced by severity of winter
weather and depth of snow cover. Dense stands of woody or herbaceous
cover are used on severely cold, windy days, while relatively sparse
weed patches or small thickets are the most likely choices on mild,
sunny days. In early winter and when snow is not deep, ring-necked
pheasants usually concentrate near woody cover for daytime loafing.
Night roosts are in nearby herbaceous cover. When all herbaceous
vegetation is buried under drifting snow, woody cover is used for
roosting and loafing. If necessary, ring-necked pheasants use the
leeward side of shelterbelt snowbanks for protection during blizzards
[58].
Winter cover - The importance of winter cover areas to ring-necked
pheasants depends on the area's distance to food. Cover beyond 1 mile
(1.6 km) from food is seldom used. In South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, and
Montana, distances usually traveled for food during winter rarely exceed
one-fourth mile (0.4 km) [58].
Lyon [65] reported vegetation height in excess of 15 inches (38 cm) and
stem densities ranging from 6 to 30 per square foot at winter roosting
sites in north-central Colorado. Knight and Dixon [36] recommended that
winter cover in New Mexico be more than 15 inches (38 cm) high. with
herbs included in all plantings [36]. In South Dakota, wetlands and
some shelterbelts provide most of the winter cover [44]. Sweetclover
(Melilotus spp.) and tall, dense stands of cattails, bulrushes, and
other marshland vegetation are highly favored when snow cover limits
food availability [58]. In North Dakota, ring-necked pheasants require
wide, dense shelterbelts that provide adequate cover from drifting snow.
In Kansas and Colorado, wheat stubble with nearby shrub cover such as
plum thickets is used. In Wisconsin wetlands offer good winter cover
[44]. Cattails and bulrushes in playas provide excellent winter habitat
in the Texas panhandle. Playas with adjacent wheat, corn, and sorghum
fields have proven to be good winter areas for ring-necked pheasants
[36]. Winter cover in northern Iowa may be limiting since vegetation in
many shelterbelts and farmstead windbreaks has been removed or has
matured and no longer provides adequate cover. Standing herbaceous
cover may be adequate winter cover in the southern latitudes of
ring-necked pheasant's range [44]. In New Mexico, cover around water
may also be used. Fall plowing, fall burning, trampling and heavy
grazing around water, and removal of old tree blocks and belts may be
detrimental to wintering ring-necked pheasants [36].
FOOD HABITS :
Ring-necked pheasants are omnivorous, eating a wide variety of plant and
animal food. Although the importance of individual food items varies
among regions and even locally, such variation evidently reflects
differences in availability rather than preference [58]. Ring-necked
pheasants feed primarily on plant foods, especially waste grains, but
also on seeds of weeds and grasses, acorns, buds and soft parts of
herbaceous vegetation, fleshy fruits, insects, and occasionally snakes
and small rodents [7,17].
Chicks live almost exclusively on insects during their first few weeks
of life. Grasshoppers, crickets, and ants are the most common insects
consumed and are excellent sources of protein and other nutrients needed
by the young pheasants. Other insects eaten include potato beetles,
squash bugs, curculio beetle, and larvae of all kinds of insects
including gypsy and brown-tail moths and tent caterpillar [7]. The
chicks' food habits gradually change and by autumn are similar to those
of adults [58].
Adult ring-necked pheasants are mainly seed-eaters, with cereal grains
comprising their staple food items [58]. In Montana, Weigand and Janson
[60] reported that ring-necked pheasants eat a variety of foods but
cereal grains form the bulk of the diet. Much of the grain (wheat,
oats, rye, and barley) eaten by ring-necked pheasants is waste grain
that has fallen to the ground during harvesting. A Montana Fish and
Game Department study in the Bighorn and Yellowstone valleys in the
1940's found that farm crops furnished 77 percent of the ring-necked
pheasant's diet. Wheat, barley, corn and oats were the most important
items. Beans, peas, and sorghum were also eaten but in small
quantities. The seeds of weeds and grass in cultivated crops comprised
about 7 percent of total food consumption. Most important were wild
oats (Avena spp.), Russian-thistle (Salsola kali), sunflower, bristle
grass (Setaria spp.), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and sweetclover.
Wild fruits amounted to less than 3 percent of total food. Common
snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) fruits were the most important. Small
amounts of chokecherry, buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), and wild
rose (Rosa spp.) fruits were also eaten. Leaves and other plant parts
made up less than 2 percent of the total food. The main items in this
category were leaves of alfalfa, prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola),
sweetclover, and root fragments of prickly lettuce uprooted by plowing
[60].
During the laying season, hens regularly seek out snail shells and other
high-calcium grit needed for egg shell production [58,60]. During
autumn, foods from harvest wastage (corn, small grains, etc.), wild
seeds, berries, succulent vegetation, and insects are fed upon for
building up deposits of fat for the winter season [58].
Fruits and buds of woody plants are important winter foods of
ring-necked pheasants [7,36]. During severe winters, when preferred
food is scarce, ring-necked pheasants feed on buds from shrubs [60]. If
salt marshes are still open, they search for small mollusks and
crustaceans [7]. In South Dakota, the winter diet of ring-necked
pheasants contained a larger percentage of high-energy farm-crop grain
during December, January, and February than at any other time of the
year. Corn made up 75 percent of winter food; wheat, oats, and barley
averaged about 10 percent, and weed seeds about 5 percent. Sunflower
was the most important weed seed at this time, followed by Kochia spp.,
ragweed, and foxtail (Alopecurus spp.). Kochia was unimportant as a
food item except during the winter months [58].
PREDATORS :
Some predators that eat ring-necked pheasants or their eggs include
skunks (Spilogale putorius, Mephitis spp., Conepatus leuconotus),
raccoons (Procyon lotor), domestic cats (Felis catus), dogs (Canis
familiaris), coyotes (Canis latrans), foxes (Urocyon spp., Vulpes spp.),
weasels (Mustela spp.), minks (Mustela vison), ground squirrels
(Spermophilus spp.), voles (Muridae), rats (Muridae), eagles
(Accipitridae), hawks (Accipitridae), falcons (Falconidae), owls
(Tytonidae and Strigidae), crows (Corvus spp.), magpies (Pica spp.),
jays (Corvidae), grackles (Quiscalus spp.), and gulls (Larus spp.)
[7,28,36,45,60].
Losses due to predation are generally highest in late winter and early
spring, apparently because at this time ring-necked pheasants are often
forced into the open to find food [28,45]. Predation accounted for 80.8
percent of all classified deaths among a radio-tagged sample of 244
ring-necked hens on the Waterlow Wildlife Area in Wisconsin. More than
60 percent of the losses due to predation were attributed to mammalian
predators. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was implicated in four-fifths of
these deaths [18]. Predator control is sometimes necessary to protect
small populations or when an new population is being established [36].
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Ring-necked pheasants are a game bird and are hunted in many states
[58,60].
Grazing can have a negative impact on ring-necked pheasants. Heavy
grazing of shelterbelts destroys the value of these areas for nesting,
brood-rearing, and general cover. Prolonged or heavy browsing of the
woody plants can eventually kill the shelterbelt. Grazing of ditchbanks
and other uncultivated areas may reduce or eliminate cover value for
ring-necked pheasants [58].
Drainage of wetlands often removes critical ring-necked pheasant
nesting, brooding, roosting and protective winter habitat [60].
Reestablishing old, drained wetlands that have not proven agriculturally
productive can improve ring-necked pheasant habitat [58].
Pesticides applied to ring-necked pheasant habitats may kill the bird
directly, during application, or indirectly, when ring-necked pheasants
eat treated insects or vegetation [60]. Heavy use of herbicides can be
detrimental by limiting cover [36].
Farming operations such as mowing and plowing often have a negative
impact on ring-necked pheasants. Mowing during the nesting season often
destroys ring-necked pheasant nests, broods, and hens [45,48,60].
Recommended farm practices for promoting ring-necked pheasants and an
explanation of their typical effects on the birds have been described
[51].
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS :
Fires in ring-necked pheasant habitat during the nesting season can
destroy ring-necked pheasant nests, eggs, and broods [19]. During an
April 17 wildfire in mixed growth of herbaceous and woody plants in
Castalia, Ohio, several ring-necked pheasant nests and eggs were
destroyed [41]. In Nebraska, Erwin and Stasiak [19] reported that 38
ring-necked pheasant nests containing a total of 336 eggs were destroyed
in a native grassland by an early spring prescribed fire. The authors
did not mention if any nests survived the fire. Adult ring-necked
pheasants reacted to the fire by flying from the grass only after the
fire had approached to within a few meters. Several times ring-necked
pheasants were observed flying through flames that at times reached 16
to 23 feet (5-7 m) in length. An adult ring-necked pheasant hen flew
through the flames and landed in the smoking ashes just behind the fire
line. She did not appear to be injured [19].
HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS :
Ring-necked pheasants may be both positively and negatively affected by
fire occurring in their habitat. The effect of fire on ring-necked
pheasants during the first postfire year is generally negative if
valuable cover is destroyed and alternate cover is not available
[27,32,45]. However, fire is an important factor in creating and
maintaining ring-necked pheasant habitat and often has a positive effect
over the long term [27,32,34].
Short-term effects - Scattered patches of tall, dense (undisturbed)
cover are important for ring-necked pheasant survival [62]. Spring
burning of grain stubble, irrigation ditchbanks, barrow pits, railroad
rights-of-way, and agriculturally idle areas removes important nesting
cover for that year. Removal of herbaceous cover in abandoned fields or
along fencerows destroys crowing territories, nesting sites, and
general escape cover for ring-necked pheasants both in summer and winter
[45]. Fall burning of grain stubble destroys protective foraging cover
[60].
Marsh vegetation may provide the only early nesting cover in some areas.
Burning of marshes just prior to the nesting season is especially
harmful to ring-necked pheasants [45].
Remnant tracts of sagebrush in southern Idaho provide important winter
loafing and escape cover for ring-necked pheasants. Fire may cause
sagebrush to revert to grasslands that do not provide ring-necked
pheasant winter habitat, and it may take 15 to 20 years for a useful
shrub component to reestablish in a dryland setting [42].
Long-term effects - Although ring-necked pheasants may be negatively
affected by fire the first postfire year, periodic disturbance of stands
is desirable and often essential to maintain ring-necked pheasant
habitat. To provide residual grass-forb cover, suitable areas of cover
must be established and then the stand must be "rejuvenated" every few
years by fire or other disturbance [21].
On the Rathbun Wildlife Area in south-central Iowa, there was a marked
decline in available nesting cover for ring-necked pheasants immediately
following a spring prescribed fire. The quality of nesting cover then
gradually improved in subsequent years until it reached or exceeded
prefire and control levels. In addition to altering species composition
and improving plant vigor, prescribed burning removed accumulated litter
resulting in an overall improvement of nesting cover. Following a July
prescribed fire, brood and renesting cover were reduced. Brood cover
seemed to show rapid improvement due to the rapid growth of
canopy-forming forbs such as common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)
and goldenrod (Solidago spp.). Nesting cover improved gradually in
ensuing years [27].
FIRE USE :
Prescribed burning can be used to maintain ring-necked pheasant habitat
[3,62]. In some areas, prescribed burning to improve sharp-tailed
grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) habitat has also improved habitat for
ring-necked pheasants [6,59]. Cover must always be available for
nesting, brood-rearing, loafing, and roosting. If ring-necked pheasant
habitat is burned, alternate cover must be available. Westmeier [62]
suggests the following 3-year management rotation for ring-necked
pheasant habitat in Illinois:
first year - no disturbance
second year- March fire (possibly followed by July haying or light grazing)
third year - light grazing, rotary mowing, or seed harvesting (by combine) in
late summer or fall.
FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find Fire Regimes".
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Phasianus colchicus
REFERENCES :
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