How to age a pheasant

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
Excluding birds not in full color, what are the best ways? I'm guessing it's kinda like a turkey, the tail and the spurs are the best indicators. Is there a way to know if a bird is older than 2 years?
 
I do the lower beak test, young of the year the lower jaw won't support weight of the bird. After that spurs and possibly tail length. I think those are subjective as good genes will produce larger spurs or longer tails, just my thoughts. While skinning I attribute amount of fat on the bird with age as well. All my indicators just tell me young of the year or older. I don't know if there is a sure fire way to get years.
 
When I got pulled over by the CO a couple weeks ago he asked me how old the bird I shot was. I told him real young first year bird. Pretty small bird and spurs were just nubs. He asked me how I knew and I said by his spurs. So I asked him how else would I know. He said a second or third year bird would have spurs an inch long. 🙄 I’ve never seen any spurs over a 5/8. I judge by spur length, size, and length of tail. I just say young bird or ol bird. If you get one with one inch spurs it might be part taradactal.
 
When those spurs start curving is when I assume they might be in their 3rd season, and maybe that is an even older bird, as I see very few of those. One from this past weekend had really decent spurs, I kept them and will post a pic.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
An older bird is noticeably heavier
Click to expand...

I was just going to say this. When I grab a pheasant by the back, there is a noticeable difference from the spring of the year to the mature bird.

Otherwise, I think it is a lot of guesswork going by tails/spurs. Genetics and nutrition are probably going to play just as much of a role as age. I'm still waiting for the nanotechnology to come available so I can track pheasants' movements and age. Until then, I figure I'll stick with spring of the year/youngsters and mature roosters.
 
Interesting subject! I have been trying to age pheasants for the past couple of years. I hunt only wild ones in SD and there is no "pheasant farm" (PR birds) within a hundred miles.

It seems to me birds .5 year old have only a small knub; 1.5 years old have a slightly elongated knub, but still just a knub; 2.5 years it is a short spike (about 3/8"), and I'd say 4Shot's birds were at least 3.5 years old, prolly more like 4.5.

The longest spike I have ever seen was about 5/8". My guess is those birds are 5-6 years old.

These were pretty big birds and yet did not have much for spurs. I would guess 2.5 yr olds:


Alex with big rooster. Short tail but size and spurs put it at 2.5 year:


Longspur. I would guess this one to be 4.5 yrs or older:


Fun stuff!
 
Very geriatric lucky rooster to make it to three years and survive three hunting seasons. Maybe 1:100,000. There is a better chance watching Goose’s hunting monkey make a double water retrieve. In 60+ years of shooting pheasants, I can recall one spur that was 7/8”in length. A heavy rooster with a spur length >.5” is over a year old. They are not parrots.
 
I have seldom seen one with spurs as long as my bottom photo above. I'net research indicates the average lifespan for a wild ringneck is 3 years, and pheasants in captivity have lived over 20 years. So it is purely a statistics game, but I'm guessing a few make to 5-6 years. Some of the places I hunt do not get a lot of hunters, and many of them cannot hit them. So a lot get pushed and shot at, but not killed or wounded.

Some years it seems like there is a hawk or falcon on every fence post, but this year I saw very few. SD had a terrible storm in December a year ago that killed a lot of cows and pheasants.

But in areas where there is not that much hunting pressure, if they get lucky on the raptor cycle and on the weather, I don't see any reason they could not make through several years. I hope so!
 
A pair from this last weekend. These about as long as I ever see. They look to be 5/8". Maybe like tail feathers, antlers, etc, different minerals in the ground in other areas, they grow more or less. I will keep one similar to this and let them dry with the foot "open". Not sure why I still do this, I must have a dozen pairs tied-up in the garage, a couple hanging from my rearview mirror, which my wife hates.
2023 spurs.jpgspurs 2.jpg
 
I imagine they stop growing as they are fully mature. And differences are just genetic. Otherwise that 20 year captive pheasant would have like 3 inch spurs.
 
They are not fingernails so they only grow until the bird is mature (1.5-2 years) then slowly wear back down from dragging in dirt/rocks. The final length is pure genetics. Someone posted on a Facebook group a picture of 1"+ spurs, doesn't mean the bird was any older than mature though.

One place I hunt has very small mature spurs, theyll never make 3/8-1/2" but are as sharp as a pencil. Another place they are noticeably longer and thinner diameter, but the birds themselves are smaller bodied. Im sure its just genetics along with a little bit of diet that determines length.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top