First and foremost, pheasants need grassland habitats in which to feed, hide from predators, and raise their young. Wetland and brushy habitats within or adjacent to grasslands often enhance their value, as they provide additional options for predator avoidance and shelter from extreme weather, particularly during winter. Pheasants are somewhat unique in that they are well adapted to fulfill their needs within a wide variety of agricultural landscapes, but those adaptations have limits. Core pheasant needs include the following:
For nesting...
... herbaceous vegetation (alive or dead) that is at least 10 inches tall by mid-April, provides enough structure to hide a nesting pheasant from predators, and remains undisturbed through at least the end of July (most initial nests hatch in June, but when initial attempts fail, hens will renest through mid-summer). Herbaceous vegetation consists of grasses, broad-leaved plants, or a combination of the two. Winter wheat can provide suitable nesting cover and produce a significant proportion of a local population’s chicks, but this crop is increasingly uncommon east of the High Plains. Heavy rains during the nesting period usually lead to lower success rates, but these effects are more consistently seen in the eastern part of the pheasant range than in the west. In the west, drought is more likely to cause lower nesting effort and success.
For raising broods...
... herbaceous vegetation that is open enough at ground level to allow small chicks to walk through it, is tall enough to conceal chicks and hens from predators, is diverse enough to support an abundant insect community near the ground for chicks to feed on, and remains undisturbed from the beginning of June to the end of August. Vegetation with a strong broad-leaved plant component is generally considered necessary to provide all the brood habitat needs. Heavy rains and cool temperatures can reduce survival rates when chicks are young, as can drought, particularly in the western part of the range.
For feeding...
... herbaceous vegetation that produces nutritious seeds that are accessible to pheasants throughout the year, preferably containing species that drop relatively large seeds onto open ground. Waste grain in harvested crop fields provides an important source of fall and winter food across nearly all the pheasant range. Regarding water, pheasants will drink from streams, ponds, and puddles, but the absence of water in these forms does not preclude pheasants from persisting in an area.
For general shelter...
... vegetation that is tall enough and thick enough to hide a walking pheasant from both avian and mammalian predators, but remaining open enough to allow unimpeded movements. Pheasants use this cover to rest during the day, roost at night, or move to and from feeding areas without being detected.
For severe winter shelter...
... vegetation that is tall and stout enough to stand above heavy snowfall and conceal pheasants from predators. Cattail stands and shrub thickets are the classic models of winter shelter. This cover is obviously most important in the northern part of the pheasant range. The longer deep snow or ice persists, the lower survival rates tend to be.
For landscape composition...
... pheasant populations need a mix of all necessary habitat types over several square miles - much larger than the area covered by any individual pheasant home range. Pheasant densities increase as the proportion of grassland in the landscape increases to a maximum of about 50% (with cropland making up most of the remaining 50%). The sizes of habitat patches, their juxtaposition, and the land use around them are also important. Initial research suggests that 1) nests in larger blocks of grassland tend to be more successful than those in smaller patches, 2) habitat patches that are part of a complex of nearby patches typically support more pheasants than isolated patches, and 3) among landscapes with similar percentages of grassland, those that also contain large blocks of woodland tend to support fewer pheasants.
Photos courtesy of Pete Berthelsen (fourth and sixth from top) and Pheasants Forever, Inc.