Ring-necked Pheasant Hunting — 2026

The ring-necked pheasant is a non-native species introduced to North America from Asia in the late 1800s. It thrived in the grassland-agriculture mosaic of the Upper Midwest, where a mix of nesting cover, winter shelter, and grain crops provides ideal year-round habitat. Pheasant populations are tied more directly to habitat quantity and quality than almost any other game bird — when CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) acres increase, pheasant numbers follow within two to three years. The dramatic expansion of CRP enrollment in the late 1980s and 1990s produced the pheasant boom that many hunters still remember, and subsequent CRP contract expirations have correlated with population declines.

Brood survival is the primary driver of fall pheasant abundance. Hens nest in dense grass cover (CRP, hayfields, roadside ditches, native prairie) from late April through June. Clutch sizes average 10–12 eggs with a 23-day incubation period. Chick survival during the first two weeks after hatching depends heavily on insect availability and weather — cold, wet springs suppress insect populations and expose chicks to hypothermia, dramatically reducing brood survival. A single severe late-spring storm can depress pheasant numbers for the following hunting season across an entire region.

Harsh winters cause significant pheasant mortality, particularly in areas lacking adequate winter cover. Pheasants require dense cattail marshes, thick shelterbelts, or willow thickets to survive blizzards and sustained sub-zero temperatures. Winter storms that produce ice crusting on snow can prevent pheasants from burrowing into snowdrifts for insulation, leading to exposure mortality. States and conservation groups have invested heavily in winter habitat projects — food plots adjacent to dense cover, living snow fences, and cattail marsh restoration — to reduce overwinter mortality.

Pheasant populations are monitored through August roadside brood surveys conducted by state wildlife agencies. South Dakota’s GFP August survey is the most widely followed indicator of fall hunting quality in the Upper Midwest. The survey measures pheasants per mile and chicks per hen along standardized routes in each county. High chicks-per-hen ratios in the central SD counties (Spink, Faulk, Edmunds, Brown, Hand) reliably predict a strong opener in October. Minnesota and North Dakota conduct similar surveys. Hunters who follow these reports can target counties with the highest bird densities each fall.