Wild sunflower habitat for pheasant

J

Jakeismydog2

Member
So when I was back in my home town to dove hunt last weekend I did a bit of scouting of my usual spots. 1 of the fields was solid wild sunflowers. It literally looked like it had been planted to wild sunflowers.

I know I really don't like hunting fields that have too much sunflower in the as they are tough walking. However I was wondering how good of habitat/food source the wild sunflower is for the pheasant.
 
Every pheasant in the area will be in that weed patch. :thumbsup:
 
The only thing better than a wild sunflower field, is a 2-3 year old fallow wheat stubble field chock full of wild sunflowers. Shot my first rooster out of one of those at about 12 years old and many after. Sadly I think the days of fields like that are past us. Sounds like you might have a good one. Sounds like a field for a hard charging flusher not a setter. Give me the GPS and I will let you know how it turned out
 
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Can be really good. Depending on the understory cover, it can be a running space for the birds. The flowers tend to tangle their heads together and grab your arms, legs, and gun repeatedly. It's worth the walk!
 
Prairie Drifter said:
Can be really good. Depending on the understory cover, it can be a running space for the birds. The flowers tend to tangle their heads together and grab your arms, legs, and gun repeatedly. It's worth the walk!
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I found if they are planted, the birds surely will run but if wild, the tangle gives ya a chance, mostly love to see them in some older wheat. this year in my part of n. e. Colorado, seeing lots of wild sunflower, but, we have no birds

cheers
 
It depends on the time of day. It seems like late morning, early afternoon will gives you a shot. Let them get to deep into the patch and man they can really run.
 
Well I guess this is my first post. Pressure is on! Anyways, I have about 40 acres of native sunflowers planted next to my house. They compete very well with Canada thistle and are a great food source for pheasants. I walked it yesterday without a dog and shot 2 birds out of it. Some one beat me too it today so I shot nothing. Before we were open I regularly saw 200 birds next to it in some bean stubble. Over time the grasses will start coming in and the sunflowers will not be so prevalent but in the mean time it is great.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
Ran by your patch on Wed. You weren't kidding. Dang near choked out all the grass.
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Did you hunt it or just drive through?

Btw. When I hunted it this year the crotch of my jeans wore through from all those sunflower stalks. Then they started depositing their seed pods and other assorted debris down my pant legs. Not pleasant at all😣
 
Jakeismydog2 said:
Did you hunt it or just drive through?

Btw. When I hunted it this year the crotch of my jeans wore through from all those sunflower stalks. Then they started depositing their seed pods and other assorted debris down my pant legs. Not pleasant at all😣
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On the way home I walked an edge and part way back before I ran out of daylight.

Some of that you can't hardly walk , lucky thats all you wore through. 5 or 6"s of snow would be nice.
 
many times I've killed pheasants off of sunflowers. also quail....they both love the stuff as long as there is ample cover for them there.
 
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