What's involved in releasing pheasants?

[teddy12b]

My dad likes to talk about the good old days growing up on the farm where he saw pheasants running around.  He lives in the country and I was thinking and I was thinking of buying a couple pheasants and releasing them in the backyard and wishing them the best of luck.  I'm sure it's more complicated than that if I want the birds to repopulate, and that's what I'd like to know.

What needs to be provided or kept up to allow pheasants to repopulate an area?  Is it something where I can just drop half a dozen off in the woods in the spring and wish them the best?

I'm interested and know nothing.  Thanks in advance for any friendly advice.

[Empty Quiver]

Growing up in Il. our neighbors would pen raise and release about fifty birds a year. It never seemed to make much difference in the population. Later the DNR advised them they were probably just feeding coyotes, the reason being, pen raised birds are dumb to the ways of nature. Maybe a put and take operation will chime in and be of more help.

[teddy12b]

Where I'm thinking of releasing these birds there aren't any coyotes, but I understand what you mean about the pen raised versus the wild birds.  I don't want to release a bunch of dummies just to watch them starve and suffer.

[wipartimer]

I would contact your D.N.R. First to see if its legal to release them. Second, they would have the expertise to help give the birds the best chance and habitat advice. Also they may know where to get birds that fly and might have a chance at survival for your area.

[marshrat]

I am a former wildlife manager who worked on a pheasant propogation program.  Just a couple of things; it is important to remember that the reason there are no pheasants where you are is because there is no pheasant habitat where you are.  I don't know where you live, but many have the mistaken impression that cornfields are good pheasant habitat.  Cornfields only seasonally provide one of the components of pheasant habitat...food.  Research has shown that pheasants almost never starve to death, therefor, food is rarely a "limiting factor" in pheasant numbers.  Unless you live in the arid west, water is not really a limiting factor, either.  That brings us to cover. 

Cover is extremely important to pheasants (and we live in houses for cover!).  They require different types of cover for different things, e.g. "nesting cover" is thick grass stands that they feel secure in for sitting on a nest until the eggs hatch while avoiding owls, foxes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, etc.  Many hens nest in alfalfa fields because it's the only thing around...then get mowed up by the first hay mowing.  I once read that dead hens seldom re-nest...

Winter cover is a limiting factor, also.  If there is not enough permanent winter cover around pheasant numbers will suffer.  Cattail marshes, thick stands of native warm-season grasses like switchgrass, Indiangrass and bluestem make good winter cover; brome does not.  Winter cover must be within about 1/2 to 1 mile at the most, or there won't be many pheasants around.  You can get on the pheasants forever website and learn more about cover and food. 

If you are going to raise a few birds to release, keep your expectations reasonable.  The average life span for a ring-necked pheasant in the wild is 9 - 11 months, in hunted or un-hunted populations.  That means most don't make it to their first birthday, but they do get one breeding season (assuming they survive to breeding age, which is about 20 - 30%).  Most pheasant restocking programs are put-take operations...birds are raised to adulthood and released for hunting purposes.  Restocking efforts to establish new populations or enhance existing numbers usually do the same thing.  So, in effect, what we do is keep a bird in captivity from hatch to early fall (1/2 of it's life expectancy), feed it, shelter it, etc., then throw it out to find it's own food, water, cover, and oh-by-the-way bring off a good bunch of chicks next spring, would ya?  I always thought it might be better to raise them to 6 - 8 weeks and release the chicks with a hen.  Sure, you'll lose some chicks like normal but the survivors might develop more 'wild' behavior.  Food for thought....Also, if you're going to release them, make sure you have overhead shelters for them to get out of storms, etc.  Good luck! It's not easy...

[dakotashooter2]

There are no pheasants in by immediate area but a local guy raises them here for his shooting reserve about 50 miles away. Several years back he had 300-400 escape from his pen late in the summer. Many of the local guys took advantage of it and hunted them but didn't make much of a dent. A year later hardly a bird was seen around here. Being mostly farm country there just wasn't enough cover for them. Even at his shooting reserve which is mostly CRP with some creek bottom he said he has very little or no carry over after releasing birds all fall. I once inquired about buying birds to do the same thing as you are suggesting. He told me they would likely disperse  and I would find very few.

[bobg]

I agree with marshrat. Habit or lack of has ruined the pheasant hunting in my area. 45 years ago i could get off the school bus. Grab my gun and dog and head across the road and have my limit in an hour. This was hay fields broken up by hedge rows. Then the big farmers come in and took out all the hedge rows. Good bye pheasant hunting. I helped the boy scouts raise pheasants for two years. Upon release the surival rate was about zero. This is just my experience. Probably doesn't mean much.    bobg

[coyotejoe]

Growing up in Ohio in the '50s pheasant hunting wasn't fantastic but was worth the effort. The only cover was weedy fence rows, creek bottom thickets and a few farm woodlots. Today there are no fences, one farmer plows right up to his neighbor, the woodlots have been cleared, the thickets drained and filled, farmers plow everything under after harvest and there is no place a mouse could survive the winter. I moved to the Colorado mountains to get away from farmers.   Of course there aren't any pheasants here either but at least I don't have to look at bare plowed ground all winter.