Interesting observation ; i see wild turkey almost daily here in south central KY . but in 12 years here i have never seen a pheasant . maybe just this area but i do drive around a lot of back roads , just never see pheasants .
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Same here in NE Ohio, as far as me seeing them anyway. Perhaps hunters see them. Just a beautiful bird to see in flight.
I remember one time as a kid walking through some brush on my dads property and I saw a pheasant tail feather on the ground. I bend over, get my fingers on the feather, start to pull and the whole pheasant was still attached to it. Scared the snot out of me all the squawking and big wings flopping.
I remember one time as a kid walking through some brush on my dads property and I saw a pheasant tail feather on the ground. I bend over, get my fingers on the feather, start to pull and the whole pheasant was still attached to it. Scared the snot out of me all the squawking and big wings flopping.
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They are thick in Kansas. And I have seen them in SE Colorado a bunch.
I have never seen a pheasant in New Mexico. Only ruffed grouse on the eastern plains. And blue grouse in the mountains. They are kinda like a fat little pheasant...
I assumed pheasant was more of a Midwestern plains bird.
I have never seen a pheasant in New Mexico. Only ruffed grouse on the eastern plains. And blue grouse in the mountains. They are kinda like a fat little pheasant...
I assumed pheasant was more of a Midwestern plains bird.
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I live in NE Ohio as well, ring-necked pheasants are pretty much gone "in the wild". A few local clubs raise them, and release the adult birds on club property a day or so before hunting season so that the youth hunters have at least SOME birds to hunt. I live in a city, but my property has some wooded land adjacent, and 30+ years ago it was very common to see wild birds coming to my bird feeders and cleaning up seed that had fallen on the ground. Unfortunately nesting habitat reduction and an big increase in predators around these here parts (coyotes mainly) has wiped them out. As a kid 60+ years ago I used to hunt them on our old homestead property with my trusty Mossberg 20ga bolt action, they were quite plentiful and I frequently presented one to Mom for the dinner pot. Yes, I did help clean them
. Sadly no longer the case today. It seems Bobwhite quail have met a similar fate. I agree they are a really beautiful bird.Upvote 0
I worked for a few years in the early 1980s in Omaha Nebraska. Another guy in the office arranged a pheasant hunt with customers once a year and I got to go to help fund it. We hunted private property near the Kansas/Nebraska state line. We'd hunt a day and a half and about half a day would be pretty busy but we all went home with a bird or two. One year we had an ice store and it wasn't possible to go see family in Kansas City so we cooked up a couple Pheasants for Thanksgiving dinner. They were great. My late wife put some bacon over them to add some fat and they were better than turkey. Kids were little then so we had plenty.
I've also hunted pen raised birds and it is fun but not the same. Wild birds know what they are doing. Pen raised birds just wait for you to kick them out.
I think you will find pheasants where you find corn. If not corn at least a grain they like to eat. We found the wild birds round corn fields as I remember it.
I've also hunted pen raised birds and it is fun but not the same. Wild birds know what they are doing. Pen raised birds just wait for you to kick them out.
I think you will find pheasants where you find corn. If not corn at least a grain they like to eat. We found the wild birds round corn fields as I remember it.
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They aren't in the Southeast. This map shows a smidge of their year-round range in northern KY, but other maps don't. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ring-necked_Pheasant/maps-range
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Maps are funny. Sometimes they use a dataset based on habitat rather than actual numbers.
Case in point - the map shows a spot right where I live and hunt in the Rio Grade valley. I can assure you there are no pheasant there. Nor have there ever been. The same for several other spots on that map.
I think this map is based on favorable habitat (elevation, vegetation, etc.) rather than actual pheasant population.
You can ask a GIS program to create a map for any species you want to hunt. It will return good information. But it just can't tell you if the animal you hunt is there or not.
No doubt bird species are in severe decline. This mirrors the situation with insects, reptiles and amphibians too. It's all changing very rapidly due to human causes.
If you want to find pheasant go to the plains of the Midwest. That's the only place you are assured to find them. In the middle of their historical habitat. Outside of that area is probably a long shot.
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Plenty around here and also turkeys... Ring neck is a imported from china way back when and the fields and crops of the Midwest is ideal for both..
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As a young man I hunted pheasant in Kansas. It was always a comedy. I think i came back with a stain in my shorts every time.
A bird would blow up out of a headrow and scare you to death. Before you could shoot he was over the top of the corn and back into cover. Another two would explode from 2 feet way over your shoulder headed the opposite direction. By the time you got the gun pointed over there another would blast right in front of your face.
I hardly ever got a shot off. When I did I didn't hit anything. A hunt was a walk with a heart attack at the end. Just a bunch of jerky movements with a gun in your hand.
We would laugh at each other about how stupid we looked and head back to the truck. Before we got back it would always happen again.
Once in a while we would bag one. But most of the time the pheasant made us look like fools.
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And the turkey poults will eat other poults if they are larger. So turkeys will eat a quail. They run them down and eat. Birds are mostly the remnants of dinosaurs to me. But that peafowl above is certainly a pretty bird. Be Well, 'dito.
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