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Wildlife
- Birds - |
Ring-necked Pheasant
(Phasianus colchicus) Y |
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RANGE: Introduced and established widely in North America, from
southern British Columbia and central Alberta to northern
Minnesota, southwestern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia
south, at least locally, to southern interior California, Utah,
northern and southeastern Texas, southern Illinois,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Native to Asia.
STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Inhabits cultivated farmland interspersed with patches
of brush or woodlots, especially areas with field border cover.
Also inhabits fallow fields, brushy pastures, roadside
hedgerows, cutover land, marshes, and meadows. Roosts mostly on
the ground in weedy ditches, marshes, cattail swales, weed-grown
fence rows, brush heaps, briar patches, and small farm-woodlots.
In winter, needs protective cover such as marshes, thickets,
shelterbelts, and heavy brush in ravines, along fencerows, and
railroad right-of-ways, and an adequate supply of food.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Agricultural land interspersed
with dense protective cover. Strongest nesting habitat
association along edges of cropland, pasture and orchard and
streamside wetland or shrubland.
NEST: Nests on the ground in a scratched-out depression,
preferably among plants that make maximum growth during spring,
such as alfalfa or coolseason grasses. Locates nest in fields of
alfalfa, sweet clover, winter wheat, or other grasses or grains;
along roadsides, fencerows, and hedgerows; or in brushy pastures
or wetlands.
FOOD: Feeds primarily on plant foods, especially waste grains,
but also on seeds of weeds and grasses, acorns, buds and soft
parts of herbaceous vegetation, fleshy fruits, insects, snakes,
and mice.
REFERENCES: Adamus et al. 2001, Baxter and Wolfe 1973, Dale
1956, DeGraff et al. 1980, Forbush and May 1955, Johnsgard
1975a, Miller 1999, Ratti in Farrand 1983a, Shunk 2004, Terres
1980. |
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