By Nick Simonson

Upland hunters in North Dakota will likely see more rooster pheasants in the field this fall according to recent data collected from the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) as part of its summer roadside surveys which tally the number of adult and juvenile pheasants along with brood numbers and sizes throughout the state. Up slightly from last year in terms of overall numbers observed, the 2026 survey revealed steady tallies in terms of both brood sizes and number of broods seen, with an interesting blip relating to a drop in the number of young birds compared to adults on the landscape, according to RJ Gross, NDG&F Upland Game Biologist.  

“So statewide, it was good.  It was 79.6 birds per 100 miles, which is up 3.8 percent from last year and the trend is still going up. Broods per 100 miles and average brood size was the same as last year, which is okay, because last year was good for both,” Gross summarizes of the overall pheasant survey results.

Areas showing improvement in overall numbers included both the northwest and northeast survey districts, where upticks of 6.6% (84.7 in 2026 from 79.5 in 2025) and 95.3 percent (43 in 2026 from 22 in 2025) in birds per 100 miles observed were tallied, respectively.  While the northeast isn’t traditionally seen as part of the birds’ normal range in the state, and has limited habitat, hunters will likely find more opportunities to encounter more flushing roosters in places closer to the district’s I-94 corridor at its southern end.  Overall pheasant tallies were off slightly in the southwest, but still high at 112.3 pheasants per 100 miles driven (down from 114.7 last year), and were down in the southeast to 67.9 birds per 100 miles, off from 71.5 noted last year. 

“People in Jamestown, Valley City, Grand Forks, and Devils Lake, they don’t have to drive very far to get back into pheasants. I grew up in Jamestown, and I used to hunt them back in the day, and you can probably do that again,” Gross explains of this years opportunities for hunters in those areas, adding, “43.1 pheasants per 100 miles, that’s the most that [the northeast survey area] has had in decades.”

Multiple mild winters following the harsh cold weather season of 2022-23 have helped sustain pheasant populations in the state, as good over-winter survival has been noted with generally favorable temperatures, limited snowfall and severe weather events. This factor, however, has triggered a low juvenile-to-adult pheasant ratio which was observed in this year’s survey.  This means for every adult rooster or hen pheasant observed, only 1.5 young of the year birds were seen, but this low number isn’t necessarily the unfortunate harbinger that it has been in the past, such as when it was that low during the drought in 2017 which hindered recruitment of young pheasants.

“Age ratio was down 14 percent, basically one-and-a-half chicks per adult and I know that sounds bad and it usually is bad, but the caveat with these is that we’ve had three non-winters in a row. So, we might have the oldest pheasants that we have ever had on record because they haven’t had to go through a winter and the mortality is very low. So, we’re carrying over a lot of adult pheasants which we’ve seen in our crowing counts. Our crowing counts have been going up and up and up and a lot of that is just because they’re not dying and we’re having a lot that are just surviving the winter,” Gross advises on the quirk in the survey’s results and the heightened possibility of harvesting longer-tailed, big-spurred roosters this fall.

North Dakota’s 2026 general pheasant season is set to open Oct. 10 and close on Sun. Jan. 3, 2027.  The state’s two-day youth pheasant season runs from Sat. Oct. 3 to Sun. Oct. 4.  Hunting hours are from one half hour before sunrise to sunset each day.  Only the males of the species, known as roosters, may be shot by hunters and the daily limit and possession limit is three and 12 roosters respectively. 

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.

Featured Photo: Running Things Up. The number of adult pheasants tallied statewide increased by 3.8 percent, up to 79.6 birds per 100 miles surveyed this summer, compared to last year’s metric of 76.7. Highest percentage increases were observed in the northeast district, while highest numbers remained in the state’s southwest corner. Simonson Photo.