Late season birds question

[goldenboy]

Question for you guys out there who understand a pheasants physical makeup. I was hunting in South Dakota a couple weeks ago. It was cold temperatures with plenty of snow on the ground. We had great winter habitat and found birds when we jumped into the cover the first time. When we revisited the same cover two days later the birds were not there. This was great winter cover like shelter-belts and cattail sloughs. We were talking around the dinner table and wondering if the birds expend so much energy to escape when it is cold that they won't fly back to that cover if they find something just as good close by. What have you guys experienced and what does anybody know about the physical make-up of a pheasant and the energy they expend to fly when it is cold?

 

[1pheas4]

The birds you chased out found another area that suited their needs for the moment. Maybe an area with similar habitat and a food source near by. So I suppose yes, they would stay in the other habitat area if it satisfied their situation at that time. With that said, a healthy wild pheasant can travel back and forth from one area to another for fairly long distances and do it on a daily basis if necessary. As long as wind driven snow and sub-zero temps isn't an issue. This is where they get into big trouble.

With that said, obviously the tighter/smaller the gap/distance between habitat(s) and food sources the better off they will be for a number of reasons.

 

[Logical]

goldenboy, when the weather is decent, can you always hit the same spot a few days apart, and find birds there? I sure don't. But, I can find them there other days, or at other times.

My point is, they may not have been there for more reasons than "it was cold". Time of day, or a coyote may have gone through recently, and chased them out before you arrived. I have see coyote and fox running ahead of me, flushing my birds. We are not the only species to disturb pheasant. I have seen deer flush them, also.

As mentioned above, if they are hunkered down due to a big snow, then flushing them may be detrimental. But, if other cover is available, they should be fine.

 

[Toad]

I would be interested if someone had data on how a bird's calorie needs change based on the weather. We all know animals burn more calories when it's cold outside, but seeing the numbers would be interesting. I would guess it's a pretty simple curve until it hits extreme temps and then their calorie needs go berserk.

That's just based on personal observations of my poultry and hawk.

For the hawk, at least, she was burning about 3 grams per hour when in my house, and averages about 5 grams per hour in her outdoor enclosure this winter. And when we had the extreme cold front come through last weekend, she had a stretch where she burned as much as 9g per hour. That's the weight of food she needs to eat in order to maintain her body weight.

Indoors, 3X24= 72g of meat per day to break even on weight
Outdoors, 5X24= 120g of meat per day to break even on weight
-10F Low, 6F high, 9X24= 216g of meat per day to break even in extreme temps

 

[1pheas4]

I would be interested if someone had data on how a bird's calorie needs change based on the weather.

Yes, once temps drop below a certain temperature pheasants caloric needs increase to maintain body weight. Otherwise they start tapping onto their fat reserves and begin to loose body weight.

One reason why Pheasants Forever pushes food plots as much as they do is because a well placed food plot can work wonders as they help pull birds through a tough winter. The less pheasants have to travel to find food or quality wintering habitat the better. Less travel, less exposure to the elements and predators, less energy required/used.

Keep in mind too, a hen pheasant goes into the winter with less body weight/fat than a rooster. Her chances of death in the winter are greater than that of a rooster.

Toad, I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for as far a caloric requirements but maybe this will help?

"To survive the 0F in the grass, the pheasants must use 22.42 kcal of energy each hour. Without the grass cover, the pheasants need 28.01 kcal each hour to survive the -39F. That is an increased metabolic need of 25 percent without the grass cover."

and "Pheasants die when they reach 60 percent of their normal body weight. A 2.4 lbs hen will die at 1.4 lbs".

and "In January the bird needs 504 kcal/day for warmth and weight gain. This mid-winter dietary requirement is equal to two McDonald's hamburgers or three Snickers candy bars a day. This is nearly double that needed last October when ruffled feathers were sufficient for warmth". Ken Solomon

 

[PheasantWhisperer]

I thought quail needed to eat pretty much everyday but pheasants could go a really long time without eating?? Is this not right? I understand if they are expending energy they need to replace it but I thought they could go like 10 days without food. I've never really looked into it, just what Ive heard form various people.

 

[jonnyB]

Joel, In November I jumped 20-30 roosters from a cattail ditch - and of course screwed up the shots. My nephew and I jumped the same ditch, next day, not as many but enough. Shot three.

Same birds? Who knows.

We were on a north south gravel and the birds were on the lee side of the wind both day's. Both jumps were the same time of day.

Tried it a couple weeks later - no birds, but weather different so was the wind.

 

[homeboy]

If someone is hunting the area twice a day, everyday; they may decide to go elsewhere.

 

[1pheas4]

Tried it a couple weeks later - no birds, but weather different so was the wind.

There are many reason why pheasants will disappear like that. Like you said, weather may very well have been the reason with those birds weren't there.

There's an area I hunt in SD with absolutely beautiful pheasant habitat. Birds are everywhere in the early part of the season. Once the snow hits, there's not a bird to be found. Great habitat, but down the road there's even better, so that's where they go.

 

[Logical]

"...but pheasants could go a really long time without eating??"

I am not a biologist, but I don't see how pheasant can go very long without eating. There is little fat on the birds, so how they could stay warm for more than a couple days, I don't know.

What I do know is, most of the birds I shoot have grain in their crop. Yes, there are some that don't. The one I got last weekend at -6 degrees, and had snowed the previous 8 hours, had nothing in his crop, even though he was within 50 yards of a wheat-stubble field. It was about 20 minutes after sunrise. Might he have been waiting for a slight warming? Just a late-riser? Maybe. There were lots of pheasant tracks in the area, though, so there were at least some birds active.

I will have to pay more attention to crops on the very cold and snowy days, to see if any have grain in them.

 

[Goosemaster]

When it's real cold, they feed later in the day, and they like to stay on the edge of cat tails,or thick buck brush.Sometimes, they are hanging out in the cat tails, but I think they get cold, and want to freely move around, and fight.