How Many Birds Per Acre or Acres Per Bird?

O

oldandnew

Active member
I have a doozy of a thread for all of you. Requires some thought and recollections of your experiences. I am interested in opinions on the reasonable expectation of average pheasant and quail numbers per acre over a span of time, that you expect to find over the course of a season. Now obviously, this varies some year to year, and I really don't think the one honey hole 80 which is either intensely brooded by the landowner, or completely encircled by a national wildlife refuge area, is what I'm looking for! I'm talking about ground which subscribes to what is now normal farming practice. How many acres do you cover to flush 1 covey of quail, or 1 rooster, over the course of the season. To kick off the discussion the old rule of thumb I used in Missouri and Kansas, was about 40@ per covey, pheasants about 20@ per harvested bird over the course of the season. So 320@ would translate into 16 roosters over the season, and would be home to 8 quail coveys? Reason for the question is that seems like a higher bird count than I've seen in the last 3 years. Please respond with your numbers and general part of the country you are reporting on. Thanks.
 
I've heard wildlife pro's say that as a general rule you can expect one chick produced at nesting time per acre of suitable nesting grass.

That doesn't account for predation and a lot of other things that could reduce survivability numbers between nesting time and opening day. I'm sure the nesting production numbers are higher in fertile pheasant states like South Dakota and lower in marginal states like Wisconsin.

Doesn't really answer your question but is an interesting tidbit I've seen published more than once.

DB
 
That means there would be 50 roosters per sq mile. That would be DARN good MN pheasant hunting. I can see a count like that in a prime habitat sq mile, certainly not average.
1 rooster harvested per 20 acres would be 32 per sq mile. Very much possible in good South Dakota Pheasant country. And in quality habitat much higher.
I think one rooster flushed per 20 acres at an average would be about right.
 
Eastern KS.....1 rooster per square mile and you just hope he's not at the neighbor's place that day. Or, 8 coveys per square mile (used to be up to 15).

W KS....I'd say 150 birds per square mile in the better areas. Quail in parts of W KS are as good as they are here these days (at least in areas of SW and SC).
 
Numbers

I came across some data so I am passing it on. From the Iowa DNR, 1 acre of nesting habitat is worth 1 fall bird. Nebraska claims in the 1970's that they had a population count in the panhandle around Alliance, in that flat irrigated stuff of 300 birds per square mile, ( 640 acres). I would sure like to see that again before I die!!! Missouri, on the "quail emphasis" areas, which are intensly managed to improve and select for bobwhite and other first succession wildlife, management target is for a bird per acre. We used to have that by osmosis, or some other alchemy, in Missouri and SE Kansas, now fighting for a toe hold, with widely scattered remnant populations. I agree with Kansas Brittany, on the NE Kansas numbers, both then and now. We must be haunting the same areas.
 
What's wrong with my W KS estimates?:D

I suppose there are parts of NW KS with more than 150 birds per section. I don't hunt that part of the state much so I can't say for sure what the best areas there produce. My W KS estimates don't necessarily speak for anything N of I-70 or any further W than Scot City.
 
W Kansas numbers

I do not hunt enough out west to say, haven't been west of Phillips County for years, but based on crow counts etc. sounds reasonable to me!!!
 
i hunt north and west of Hays and Wakeeney, for those areas, that number seems a little high, some sections not even close, others i have kicked up 75-100 birds in a quarter alone, it just depends, but overall in my area, 75 per square may be more the average.
 
hunter94 said:
i hunt north and west of Hays and Wakeeney, for those areas, that number seems a little high, some sections not even close, others i have kicked up 75-100 birds in a quarter alone, it just depends, but overall in my area, 75 per square may be more the average.
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75 birds per square mile at the beginning of season is pretty decent for much of KS. I agree there are plenty of places that won't produce 150 birds per square mile, but the places that have a good mix of CRP and feed, do you think that # is accurate?
 
around here in gove county right next to I-70 I'm guessing 75 to 100 per square mile for pheasant and maybe 1 per 5 miles for quail dep[ending on where you are for the quail
 
Numbers

Boy, Gove, Thats a LOONG way to walk for a few quail, but the pheasant count sure is encouraging. In the last century, late 70's through mid 80's hunting mostly jewel county, couldn't seriously even hunt pheasants, due to running into covey after covey of quail. Literally moving 12 to 20 coveys a day easy. sometimes you would hear them running through the leafy matter in the creek bottom cover, sounded like a herd of elephants. Shot pheasants as we ran into them. Guess the big birds are hardier and more adaptable or we just selected agriculturally or weatherwise for pheasants. But the numbers of pheasants you encounter would lead me to believe that these are the good old days. How bout Prairie Chickens? I suspect the crp helped them as well.
 
old and new i cant remmember the last time i came across a prairie cjicken i know they are their but i guess i dont pay much attention to them
 
mnmthunting said:
That means there would be 50 roosters per sq mile. That would be DARN good MN pheasant hunting. I can see a count like that in a prime habitat sq mile, certainly not average.
1 rooster harvested per 20 acres would be 32 per sq mile. Very much possible in good South Dakota Pheasant country. And in quality habitat much higher.
I think one rooster flushed per 20 acres at an average would be about right.
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Your right about that, and I think some sq miles have way more and others way less in that county. But it is one of the countys that does have that habbitat. Pluss they did release thousands of adult birds too, for some years. Now it has just stuck. The last I heard was 98 birds not sure this last year. But it was right at about that for a while now. I think there is some countys around that fair better. Not like SD and ND in more places of coarse, but still fun enough.
 
jnormanh said:
Here's a link to pheasants/sq mile - only the most prime areas show 100/sq mile.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/cbcra/h3091ra.html
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Thanks for sharing this. I don't believe I've ever seen it before. I'm actually a bit surprised. I've hunted 1 1/4 of CRP before, then drove around to the other side of the section and hunted another 1/4 of CRP. There is not a doubt in my mind that there were at least 300 birds on that section. I guess when you're looking at the big picture though, that's just an isolated section of prime habitat and some of the birds may have been produced on the surrounding sections.....so if you averaged the #'s for that and the surrounding section, the # probably wouldn't be more than 75.
 
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