Tips to Support Ring-Necked Pheasants in Missouri

By Blake Jackson

Missouri landowners can take practical steps to help sustain ring-necked pheasant populations, which have been declining across the Midwest due to habitat loss and changes in land use.

“Providing the right types of habitat for nesting, brood-rearing and winter cover is essential for pheasant survival and reproduction,” says Robert Pierce, University of Missouri Extension state wildlife and fisheries specialist.

A new publication from MU Extension, created with Missouri Pheasants and Quail Forever, provides science-based guidance for supporting pheasant populations. Ecology and Management of Ring-Necked Pheasants in Missouri is available as a free download.

“The sight of pheasants in grasslands and crop fields in northern Missouri is becoming less common,” says MU Extension horticulture specialist Todd Higgins. “The decline in the pheasant population is not just a Missouri problem. It is a problem across their range throughout the Midwest.”

Ring-necked pheasants are found in at least 32 Missouri counties, primarily north of the Missouri River and near the Iowa border, Pierce notes. Higgins identifies three main causes of population decline: intensive row crop production, decreased enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and rural development replacing farmland.

Will Robinson, senior farm bill biologist with Missouri Pheasants and Quail Forever, suggests several strategies:

• Implement wildlife-friendly practices across the farm. Grasslands composed of native warm season grasses and forbs provide critical nesting and brood cover. Integrating grasslands with grain crops such as corn, soybeans, milo, and cover crops supports both food and shelter.
• Minimize herbicide use in field borders to maintain food and cover.
• Maintain fencerows and natural vegetation along field edges for nesting, brood-rearing, and escape cover.
• Delay mowing roadsides and field edges until after mid-July and postpone mechanical clipping or grazing of cool-season grasses until after August 1.

Additional practices include increasing plant diversity in field borders, using prescribed fire to promote native grasses and forbs, and thinning woodlands to enhance wildlife habitat. These steps can collectively help reverse pheasant population declines and improve overall biodiversity.

Photo Credit: istock-urpspoteko