Date: 6/14/25 12:21 am From: 'George Hammond' via Birders <birders...> Subject: Re: [birders] Ring-necked Pheasant & Great Egrets
The conventional wisdom on ring-necked pheasants seems to be that they did very well in the rural landscapes of the mid-20th century, but there have been many changes in farming practices since then that reduced the quality of habitat for pheasants. Things like increasing increasing size of farms and fields (fewer fence lines and hedgerows), more pesticide use, more efficient harvesting (less cover and wasted grain), monoculture farming (less winter food).
https://www.audubon.org/news/the-ring-necked-pheasant-has-seen-serious-habitat-loss https://www.birdful.org/what-happened-to-the-ring-necked-pheasant/
> On Jun 5, 2025, at 3:55 PM, Fred Kaluza <fkaluza...> wrote:
>
> Could be a case of urban Coyote increases. Ring-necks may not have evolved with similar predators in their home ranges. Just a thought.
> From: Jack Smiley <jackrsmiley...>
> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2025 2:05:25 PM
> To: birders Birders <birders...>
> Subject: [birders] Ring-necked Pheasant & Great Egrets
>
> Although pheasants aren't native, they are still one of my favorite birds as we had lots of pheasants and Bobwhite quail in our backyard (in Westland) when I was a kid. Just a few years ago, you could still find numerous Ring-necked Pheasants in Superior Township. One winter, I counted a flock of 56 male Ring-necked Pheasants in a farm field at Geddes and Ridge Roads. Today, they are a rare sight...so it was nice to see a male Ring-necked Pheasant this morning along Cherry Hill Road, east of Harris Road. That's the only one I've seen in about a year.
>
> At the large wetland on the south side of Cherry Hill Road, west of Harris Road, there were over a dozen Great Egrets.
>
> Jack Smiley
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