What to look out for in the upcoming ND pheasant hunting season

NORTH DAKOTA (KFYR) – North Dakota’s pheasant season opens Oct. 7. Here’s what hunters can expect to see for birds when hitting the field.

North Dakota Game and Fish Department upland game biologists conducted brood surveys from July 20 to the end of August to get an idea of pheasant populations before the pheasant opener.

“So we look at four metrics when we’re doing these surveys. We look at total number of birds per 100 miles driven, number of broods per 100 miles, average brood size, how many are in a brood and then the age ratio of juveniles to adults,” said RJ Gross, NDGF upland game biologist.

The results of their findings should make pheasant hunters smile, such as the number of birds per 100 miles.

“It was a little over 65 this year. That’s a 61% increase compared to last year,” said Gross.

Pheasant broods per 100 miles also saw a nice increase during this year’s surveys.

“Was seven and a half broods per 100 miles, which was a 70% increase compared to last year. Really good and especially some areas like our northwest and southwest had really big increases, like 90%,” said Gross.

The age ratio of pheasants certainly plays an important part in these surveys.

“As far as juveniles to adults was right around two and a half juveniles per adult. And that was a 26% increase from last year. And typically, when you’re looking at pheasants, anything over two, the population is increasing,” said Gross.

And the average pheasant brood size was similar to last year’s survey results.

“Average brood size was just a little bit over six, pretty much unchanged from last year, which again last year was really good production and anything over six indicates good to excellent production,” said Gross.

It’s surprising after the long, brutal winter we had many birds survive, and the population is heading in the right direction.

“Everyone’s going to compare to 1997, that’s the last time we had over 100 inches of snow. And even though it was a long winter, they came through and we had a good population,” said Gross.

Overall, it should be a good year for pheasant hunters.

For more information on the pheasant season in North Dakota, visit the Game and Fish Department’s website at gf.nd.gov

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