Montana Field Guide

The Ring-necked Pheasant adult male has a long, barred tail, iridescent coloration, white collar, and bright red face patch. The adult female also has a relatively long and strongly barred tail, but she has a dull, mottled brown back and buff-colored breast. Adult males range from 30 to 36 inches in length and average 2.9 pounds in weight; adult females range from 21 to 25 inches in length and average 2.1 pounds in weight.

For a comprehensive review of the conservation status, habitat use, and ecology of this and other Montana bird species, please see Marks et al. 2016, Birds of Montana.

Female or young Greater Sage-Grouse and Sharp-tailed Grouse can be confused with female pheasants or young pheasants of both sexes, but female Greater Sage-Grouse have a black belly patch and feathered legs, while female pheasants have a brown belly and bare legs. Sharp-tailed Grouse have a much shorter tail, feathered legs, and white under parts.

Habitat consists of open grassland and cropland areas with brushy cover, especially along watercourses. Good habitat consists of grain crops and undisturbed herbaceous cover associated with brush and trees. Extensive grasslands or forests do not provide good habitat (Reuel 1971). In winter pheasants are found mainly associated with brushy cover or tall grasses within a quarter mile of a source of grain for food.

In northwest Montana, wheat and barley occurred in 67% and 23% respectively of the crops collected in the fall, and accounted for 77% of crop volume (Austin 1972).

Crowing cock densities were 13.8 per square mile in central Montana; sex ratio was 1 male:0.68 females (1 Male:2.36 Females for harems). Food in fields is utilized only if uncultivated cover is found nearby.

Average clutch sizes of 10.1 (1958) and 6.7 (1959) were reported south of Missoula, with an August, 1959 brood size of 5.6 young. Peak hatching occurs in early June, but hatching continues into August. Skunks and Black-billed Magpies are the main nest predators.