Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Physical description

The ring-necked pheasant is one of the largest and certainly the most brightly colored of Washington’s upland birds. An adult male (rooster) ring-neck weighs 2 1/2 to 3 pounds and measures up to 35 inches from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail. That long, pointed tail may account for over half the overall length. An adult hen pheasant weighs about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds and has a much shorter tail.

As with many bird species, the male ring-neck is much more colorful than the hen. The underside of a mature rooster is an iridescent rust-red on the lower neck and breast, turning darker on the belly and lighter with dark spots on the sides. A distinctive white ring runs around the middle of the neck, and above that most of the head is an iridescent dark blue-green with hints of purple.

Ecology and life history

Agricultural crops such as wheat, corn, soybean and sunflower are favorite ring-necked foods, but they also eat seeds from a variety of grasses, weeds and other plants. Pheasant chicks eat grasshoppers and other insects for the first six weeks of their lives.

Nesting and hiding cover includes uncultivated fields of mixed grasses and weeds; hay fields; hedge rows; fence lines; road rights-of-way and ditches where vegetation is allowed to grow; weather-break tree rows; stands of small trees and brush; cattail patches; uncut crop fields and harvested fields where tall stubble and/or piles or rows of unharvested vegetation remains; and riparian areas, especially those with lush grass or brush cover.

Climatic and habitat conditions earlier in the year, especially in late spring and early summer, play a major role in determining what kind of success Washington pheasant hunters are likely to have finding wild birds in the fall. Cool, wet late-spring weather, for example, can be devastating to newly hatched chicks, while mowing, plowing and burning can destroy nests and kill young birds. Large numbers of pheasant chicks may starve if conditions are such that grasshoppers and other insects are in short supply. When these and other problems lead to poor reproduction and low chick survival, there are few young-of-the-year roosters available in the fall, and because yearling birds typically account for 80 to 90 percent of the fall harvest, the pickings can get pretty slim for hunters in those places where spring production is down.

Geographic range

The ring-necked pheasant is not native to Washington, or even to North America. Washington received its first ring-necks in 1883, and heavy plants were made in Western Washington in the early 1890s and in several areas of Eastern Washington later in that decade. The first Evergreen State pheasant season opened in 1897.

A few small, self-sustaining populations of ring-necked pheasants occur in the agricultural areas west of the Cascades, but the grain-producing lands on the east side of the state provide the best pheasant habitat and the highest ring-neck populations. WDFW also releases thousands of pen-raised birds in both Eastern and Western Washington to supplement the wild pheasant population and provide additional opportunity for upland bird hunters.