MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
July, 1975 
Vol. 18, No. 7 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat R. E. Warner 
From 28 June to 18 September in 1972 and 1973> a radiotelemetry project 
was conducted to determine cover preferences by pheasant broods on the Sibley 
Study Area (SSA). A Master of Science thesis concerning this study was com¬ 
pleted by R. E. Warner and submitted to the University of Illinois in May 1975. 
Information on cover utilization was successfully collected for eight 
different broods ranging from 1 to 12 weeks of age during the course of the 
study. Two of the radio-tracked broods were known to have hatched on SSA 
experimental roadsides. All eight broods made primary use of either an oat 
field (seven broods) or a hay field (one brood). These results indicated that 
oats in particular and hay were fundamental roosting and feeding cover for 
east-central Illinois broods throughout July, August, and early September. It 
was hypothesized that necessary high-protein insect foods were readily available 
in oats and hay. 
Brood age was shown to be of more influence than crop phenology (season) 
or hay and small grain harvest in the significant gradual increase in the use 
of corn and soybeans and in the corresponding decline in the use of oats and 
hay. Broods 6 weeks of age and less made more extensive use of oats and hay 
than did older broods. 
The results of this study substantiated that oats and hay have tradition¬ 
ally been preeminent in the successful rearing of juvenile pheasants in east- 
central Illinois. When the radiotelemetry project was initiated in 1972, hay, 
pasture, and small grain acreages had been reduced from nearly 30 percent in 
1962 to 6.7 percent of the SSA land area. By 197^+, these acreages had diminished 
to 3.9 percent. The extent to which hay and small grains have declined pre¬ 
sumably eliminates the opportunity for many broods hatched on roadsides to 
utilize this optimal brood habitat. 
In order to determine where seeded roadsides may be most successfully 
utilized by the ringneck in Illinois 1 prime pheasant range, it will be necessary 
to understand the well-being of pheasant broods produced on roadsides not in 
close proximity to hay or small grain fields. 
The third season of nest searches along roadsides in the Ford County 
Management Unit (FCMU) will be completed this summer, in conjunction with 
annual early-morning brood counts that have been conducted on the FCMU since 
NATURAL HISTORY M1RYEY 
AUG 18 1975 
