Ring-necked pheasant

Ring-necked pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

ITIS Species Code: 175905 NatureServ Element Code: ABNLC07010

Taxa:

Order:

Family:

Aves

Galliformes

Phasianidae

NatureServe Global Rank:

NatureServe State (NC) Rank:

Federal Status:

NC State Status:

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PARTNERS IN FLIGHT PRIORITY SCORES:

Southern Blue Ridge:

n/a

Southern Piedmont:

South Atl. Coastal Plain:

n/a

HEXAGONAL KNOWN RANGE:

PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:

SUMMARY OF STATEWIDE PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:

Land Unit

US Fish & Wildlife Service

US Forest Service

US National Park Service

US Department of Defense

NC State Parks

NC University System

NC Wildlife Res. Com.

NC Forest Service

NC Div. of Coastal Mgmt.

Local Governments

Non-Governmental Org.

Other Public Lands

Private Lands

GAP Status 1-2

All Protected Lands

Statewide

Hectares

271.08

0.00

3,599.64

33.39

0.00

8.01

0.00

2.07

0.00

5.04

0.09

1,450.53

1,844.46

3,919.32

5,369.85

Acres

669.85

0.00

8,894.90

82.51

0.00

19.79

0.00

5.12

0.00

12.45

0.22

3,584.34

4,557.76

9,684.85

13,269.19

% of Dist. on

Prot. Lands

6.9 %

0.0 %

91.8 %

0.9 %

0.0 %

0.2 %

0.0 %

< 0.1 %

0.1 %

< 0.1 %

0.0 %

47.1 %

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% of Dist. on

All Lands

5.0 %

0.0 %

67.0 %

0.6 %

0.0 %

0.1 %

0.0 %

< 0.1 %

0.0 %

< 0.1 %

27.0 %

34.3 %

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HABITAT DESCRIPTION:

Very local at specific sites on the barrier islands since 1930s (Fussell 1994, Potter et al. 1980).
Inhabits any type of semi-open area, such as the edge of marshes and forests, grassy or brushy fields, farms with mixed crops, or hedgerows. The presence of water may be an important factor (Kaufman 1996); rarely found far from it (Harrison 1975).
Nests on the ground in open areas with herbaceous ground cover to conceal nest (Harrison 1975). Forages on the ground (Ehrlich et al. 1988).
NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:

Open country (especially cultivated areas, scrubby wastes, open woodland and edges of woods), grassy steppe, desert oases, riverside thickets, swamps and open mountain forest (AOU 1983). Winter shelter includes bushes and trees along streams, shelterbelts, and fencerows. Usually nests in fields, brushy edges, or pastures, also along road rights-of-way. Nest is shallow depression scratched out by female.

MODELING DESCRIPTION:

Occupied Landcover Map Units:

Code	Name	Description	NC Natural Heritage Program Equivalent
371	Maritime Grasslands	Dune grass community consisting of sea oats and beach grasses.	Dune grass, Maritime dry grassland
20	Coniferous Regeneration	Regenerating pine stands. Predominantly loblolly pine, but slash and longleaf stands occur as well.	No equivalent
36	Successional Deciduous Forests	Regenerating deciduous trees with a shrub stature. Commonly dominated by sweetgum, tulip poplars and maples.	No equivalent
180	Agricultural Crop Fields	Farm fields used for row crops.	No equivalent
205	Agricultural Pasture/Hay and Natural Herbaceous	Farm fields used for pasture grass or hay production, as well as old fields dominated by native and exotic grasses.	No equivalent
202	Residential Urban	Includes vegetation interspersed in residential areas. Includes lawns, mixed species woodlots, and horticultural shrubs. Vegetation accounts for between 20 - 70% of the cover.	No equivalent

View Entire Landcover Legend

Additional Spatial Constraints:

Exclude all area outside of known range.

Limited to the outerbanks.

Exclude areas of intensive human activity including moderately to highly developed landscapes.

CITATIONS:

McAtee, W.L. 1945. The ring-necked pheasant and its management in North America. Wash. 320 pp.

Fussell, J.O. III. 1994. A birder’s guide to coastal North Carolina. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.

Kaufman K. 1996. Lives of North American Birds. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Pough, R. H. 1957. Audubon Western Bird Guide. Doubleday. 316 pp.

Harrison, H.H. 1975. A field guide to bird's nests in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. 257 p.

Harrison, C. 1978. A field guide to the nests, eggs and nestlings of North American birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.

Howman, K. C. R. 1979. Pheasants, their breeding and management. 117 pp.

Potter, E. F., J. F. Parnell, and R. P. Teulings. 1980. Birds of the Carolinas. Univ. North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 408 pp.

Terres, J.K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), Committee on Classification and Nomenclature. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth Edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder's handbook:a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Shuster, Inc., New York. xxx + 785 pp.

Reichel, J. D., and P. O. Glass. 1991. Checklist of the birds of the Mariana Islands. Elepaio 50:3-11.

10 March 2005

This data was compiled and/or developed by the North Carolina GAP Analysis Project.

For more information please contact them at:
NC-GAP Analysis Project
Dept. of Zoology, NCSU
Campus Box 7617
Raleigh, NC 27695-7617
(919) 513-2853
www.basic.ncsu.edu/ncgap