Any knowledge here as to how bad coyotes are on the pheasant population.
I have some land in Ks that is being trapped. Lots of coyotes being caught.

They are hell on quail, also. Lots of country in western part of central Texas where angora goats are in sheep fencing are over run with quail in good moisture years where coyote snares are used at fence crossings while a couple miles away cattle ranches with barbed wire will only have a smattering of quail in the same weather and forage conditions.

Not near as hard on them as all the hawks and eagles are.

We used to have a lot of pheasants on the farm in Western Colorado. I blame a lot of it on the soaring raccoon problem. I trap around 50 a year but it doesn’t seem to dent the population. Nothing that nests on the ground is safe from them.

This^^^ and they are the reason for the prairie chicken and sage grouse decline. Tall electric towers let's them see ground birds a mile away.

Hell, nothing that nests in trees are, either.....

If a coyote finds a clutch of young pheasants that can't fly yet, it'll get them all.

100 percent right.

The foxes and coyotes get too bad a rap for this.

Mostly rodents.

Same if a bobcat or couple of barn owls find a covey. The cat will stay until none are left according to a warden I talked to.

I know for a fact the barn owls will return every evening until all are gone. Kites and Merlin's and Harriers are probably the worst on them. But Swainsons and even kestrels take their toll.

We have a big broadwing hawk with dark gray mottled under wings that work them over to.

There was a reason many travelled to Kittyhawk years ago to shoot the migrating sharks of the sky.

The Cornell Ornithology website lays most of the blame for nest losses on foxes, weasels and mink. Raptor predation becoming the major source of mortality in winter.

Apparently territorial male ring necks harass and drive out prairie chickens during the breeding season.

Well....the stomach contents of foxes and coyotes in Montana lay the blame on raptors.

Problem is habitat, coyotes, foxes, feral cats, bob cats, racoon, possums, hawks, eagles, squirrels, turkeys, bears, deer, and even snakes. Damn hogs too.

Couldn't be a more bias source on earth than Cornell when it comes to favoring birds.

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/

I've resented them since they bought out the Thayer's Birds Of North America software and turned it into trash..

Bobcats too - read a while back fish&game somewhere[?] followed a collared bobcat that followed a mother turkey and poults unable to fly yet . Bobcat killed every baby turkey and the mother turkey too .

Dale there's some good stuff on youtube about 'nest predators' coyote fox bobcat coon skunk possum all meander around looking for nest to rob .
It takes an extensive amount of work to curtail them then others move in to fill the void .
That's why i shoot every one of them every chance i get .



Fact ..

Back in the 70's when i was kid - farmers shot every hawk they saw and we never ran out of hawks like the lefties stories go .

I wanna say that the biggest factors in NW Illinois were 3-fold.

First and foremost was loss of cover as farms cleaned up and enhanced production.

Secondly, the various raptors have exploded in numbers and varieties seen.

And turkeys... The reintroduction of turkeys has been successful beyond dreams. Every bit of cover they own. Where they flourish, pheasant decline.

Do turkeys run pheasants off ?

The experts say no. But almost any bird will eat another birds eggs.

It's just my observation that pheasant declined drastically in my area while turkeys are almost as populous as pheasant once were.

Thanks !

Hey, I put out stuff for general info.....

http://animalrange.montana.edu/documents/extension/ringneckedpheasant.pdf

Ya got a source on them stomache contents?

# Bring Back DDT

My experience is that owls are hell on pheasants as well.

Riding a bicycle across Texas this past June I didn’t see a single hawk between Mason TX and Seminole, five turkey vultures total. Maybe 2 - 300 miles.

Saw a schidtload of lubber grasshoppers and rank roadkill tho.

I have a video on my phone of a canada goose sitting in an eagles nest eating the eggs. The goose suddenly looks up while simultaneouly ducking as an eagle strikes it from above. This was captured from a full time monitored live net cam. The monitor killed the video feed at the moment the eagle hits the goose.

Other instances of the monitor killing the video feed occurred when the eagles brought kittens or puppies to the nest. No interruptions are deemed necessary when they bring up a carp.

Peafowl will eat chicken chicks, tame pelicans and cormorants will eat kittens. I imagine a hen pheasant might put up a stiff defense against a turkey tho.

According to a study by pheasants forever,coyotes help pheasant population.

And there’s enough coyotes in the areas that have good pheasant populations to support this from what I’ve seen.

There are lots of hawks down here now. We always have a lot in the winter!

That’s interesting. I am a PF member, and have an e mail to them on this topic.

I have 640 acres of stellar pheasant habitat in west central Ks. In 2010 and 2011, we shot over 100 roosters off that land. In 2012, we hunted it one day, with dogs and never “saw” a pheasant. There was a terrible drought and heat wave that killed off almost all of the population.
Since 2012, the population has increased at a very slow rate. I can’t understand why there are not more birds. The property has lots of cover multiple food plots, and three water sources on the property.

Ditto that on the owls! We loose a lot of the birds we release due to owls. Coyotes are definitely involved, but not like the owls! I coyote hunt where we release the birds, they could care less about a "rabbit" in distress, but use a pheasant call (yes, there's pheasant calls) and get ready! For the coyotes that is... not the owls. Though they come to it too!

Coyotes have been implicated in helping Lyme disease too, through fox control.....

https://www.outdoornews.com/2012/07/27/did-coyotes-trigger-the-ticks-lyme-scourge/

Indeed, but shooting them all as vermin is still widely practiced in sheep and goat country.

No doubt they take some. Pheasant chicks have the whole spring to fall period before they can fly that they are susceptible to ground and air attacks.

But there is probably no more successful predator on from song birds to young game birds to cottontails than feral cats. At least in some areas.

https://forums.bowsite.com/TF/bgforums/thread.cfm?forum=1&threadid=478769

Try their subscriber site......

https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/home

Lengthy articles on every facet of a given bird, complete with references, it’s a scholar-research-reference site. The data on pheasant nest losses came out of Iowa, adult-to-raptor losses the highest rate was Sweden with such predation major everywhere, especially in winter.

As for Thayers, I used their software for years to teach birds to people, but in recent years they’ve been superseded just about entirely by free stuff on the internet, like Cornell’s own allaboutbirds website....

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hermit_Thrush#

Varmint populations have exploded since Hollywood turned fashion completely away from the use of fur or animal hides. When a raccoon was worth $25 and fox and bobcat even more a ground nesting bird had a chance. Now you can hardly give a hide away and nobody traps. It is a mystery to me how a duck or any other ground nesting bird can survive much less reproduce.

If you always have a internet connection I suppose the web based programs will work for ya.
I spend a lot of my time in pretty remote regions so when I need the resource a connection is seldom available.

I have Thayer's BNA gold edition, it covers a lot and it's always with me.

Don't forget owls. Cover makes a big difference. On the up side if a nest gets destroyed pheasants will make a replacement nest - why you sometimes see juvenile birds hunting season.

'Morning George. That was the theory in SE SD since at least the 1930s. Dad said no cat not near a farmhouse was safe from Grampa. And pheasants were introduced in 1908.

As an anesthetist in a rural practice, I made untold 30-mile round trips to my primary hospital at all hours of the night over almost four decades. This was mostly by blacktop but in extremes of ice by gravel.

At some point in those years, I considered that my headlights picked up at least one hunting cat every five miles. That’d be six cats per trip while going 60 mph (sometimes a little faster). Those were the ones who were white or in the open in the ditch — that I’d see.

They are also the most frequent road kill here.

We have a neighborhood cat that is a pet of some fine people here. But it roams and is death to birds and cottontails on our yard let alone the whole area. It is a ten pounder and I’ve seen it carrying birds to young rabbits around. Imagine a 100 million of these, 70 million of which roam freely.

And I agree with your grandpa. 😉

Studies in canyons in San Diego seem to support that idea. Basically, in some canyons without coyotes the smaller predators, coons, housecats, possums and such, decimate ground nesting birds like quail. The habitat would be perfect for the birds without the heavy predation by the smaller predators. Granted, the studies are a few years old now, but it was my experience while living there that the further from civilization (as in the outer suburbs) the more 'yotes and the more quail one would see.

https://www.nature.com/articles/23028




https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1988.tb00337.x



Don't know if that is changing there as I left that area permanently in '91. But I do know, from relatives and personal observation on visits, that coyotes have moved back into areas where there were none when I grew up. Like walking down the streets I used to deliver papers on at 0530 in the 70's. Never saw a 'yote there. Now they are taking cats and small dogs from yards, and likely the possom and coon populations are down too.

There was no shortage of coyotes where I lived in E. WA and there was what I would consider decent populations of pheasant in suitable areas. Quail, partridge (Huns), and chukar too. Just an anecdote, but the birds seemed to be doing fine with coyotes around.

Geno

Coyotes aren't dummies, nor is Ma Nature as to wasting energy for caloric gains. There is no doubt in my mind that Coyotes are hell on any broody hen and or the eggs of any ground nesting bird species. There should be some truth to the fact that Coyotes eat and keep down other nesting predators but no true research , that I have found, shows that the balance is swayed towards the positive recruitment of a ground nesting species by the coyotes eating other nest predators.

Most certainly Hawks, Owls and Eagles play a huge role in any ground living birds as do snakes where applicable.

It is quite obvious , if one knows the history of game bird be it pheasant, quail, turkey or similar that raptors were kept in check in the days of past. Further I can factually attest that a year round trapping program for coyotes, racoons, skunks, foxes etc will almost always increase recruitment in both game birds and Cervid species.

One of the more and recent worries discovered lies with the widespread and increased use of Neonicotinoids as the go to for insecticides. . Studies have shown that these chemicals greatly affect the reproductive and immune systems, especially in small game birds, in a negative way. The chemicals can be not only transferred by the eating of sprayed grains directly but also from the consumption of dead or dying insects from the chemicals application.

I am not about to step out there and onto the farmers toes but I believe that these chems in particular should be very closely scrutinized.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25177026

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284370/

Without great cover and lots of it, ground-nesters cannot avoid predators. All sorts of predators eat pheasants/nests, and the only way around it is to have enough good cover that the predators cannot find many of the nests/hatchlings.

The demise of widespread CRP combined with "modern" clean farming practices spell doom to any ground-nesting bird except sometimes turkeys.

A high school contemporary from our mutual home town who made his career with the DNR in MN has referred to NW Iowa with its 20k/acre farmland, a biological desert for exactly the reasons you mention.

The new game bird killer is going to be neonic pesticides, and not just directly but indirectly too by wiping out insect used for chick forage. Just watch.

^ Yep, definitely something to consider.

Absolutely, excellent post....you too Strick9. 👍

We’re our own worst enemy sometimes, most times, and it’s hard to blame the critters for doing what they do.

There’s a reason why some critters lay a lot of eggs (millions or more in some cases) and some give live birth to a single being.

That's sure the case here. Pivot sprinklers have removed many acres of ditch rows and cover. There's no place for them to hide any more.

Out here in the Northern part of the county some folks let loose some and they sure wrecked havoc with the Prairie Chicken.

They would find a clutch of eggs and lay theirs in the nest.

The chickens would think it was full and give up.

Meaning less chicken eggs every year.

Let loose some what?

My 1st order of business would be feral cats, they're very efficient predators. Next would be the nest-robbers skunks and raccoons. About the only thing a guy can do regarding raptors is to remove their perching positions and nesting trees. Get those under control and then have a coyote plan.

Pheasants.

There are still some around you can see from time to time but not when hunting season is on.

Weather and cover. Both effect our grouse and woodcock up here in spring. And if the snow continues this winter, the turkeys are gonna catch hell. In hunting SD for 40 years, noticed the same for pheasant populations. Fact, if you read the SD Brood Count Survey end of August, right or wrong, those two issues lead the reasons for an increase or decrease in bird populations.

Skunks are also hell on nests with eggs

So, callers have educated the coyotes to the rabbit calls by missing them.

It all comes down to cover with pheasant...

no cover they yotes find them easily... the weather kills them easily.

The problem is this new generation of farmers / corporate farms have completely removed all the fence rows and removed that cover.

In places where the field boundary’s are creeks to wet for tractors the population is doing well - but for Western KS, and Eastern Colorado - as always it’s the farmers that are doing the damage to wildlife.

heck Kansas (the state) forces farmers to poison thier prairie dogs, they do drive by’s looking for signs of Pdogs - if they see them, they deliver bags of poison for the farmer to put out to kill them off. IF the farmer doesn’t do it, they hire people to go poison them and send the farmer the bill. I used to Pdog hunt in KS... but there aren’t any decent populations anymore, and the guys doing Pdog outfitting that was fighting the state in lawsuits either died or ran out of money, some of both really.

Pretty crazy huh

This^^^

Overpopulation of humans requires those toxins for adequate food supplies.

I move we quit financing the population explosion with welfare.

In the summer I routinely see big hawks shadowing wild turkeys, especially hens with half grown chicks.

What REALLY kills off or endangers any species is that particular species lack of ability to adapt.

That's why at the end of times, the world will be inhabited with cockroaches and coyotes.

They adapt well.

Kind of off-topic, but since bird books were mentioned...

I just bought a copy of "Sibley Birds West" to replace my 1966 copy of "Birds of North America." All I can say is WOW! The number of bird drawings and info packed into 477 pages is incredible. Too much, perhaps, as the typeface is pretty tiny for a senior's eyes. The illustrations - all by Sibley - are simply awesome. He depicts birds in flight that you'd normally see flying, and ground birds walking. Usually both ways. Raptors in particular are shown in great detail, both juvenile and adult.

My level of bird identification would require a book divided into "Little brown ones" "Big brown ones" "Little kinda yellow ones" and so on...So this volume is a LOT more sophisticated than I need, but it is a joy to simply page through.

My dad and I own and manage 2 properties for pheasants in west central Minnesota. There are some studies out there, you will have to google them to find them but I believe they were out of SD, that indicate coyotes can be good for the pheasant population. The coyotes somewhat control the nest predators (it would warm my heart to see a coyote kill a feral cat!).

Here are some pheasant facts directly from Pheasant Forever's website. On a side note, PF is a great organization where all money except the membership money stays with the local chapter to spend how they want to spend on local projects. I am not aware of any other national conservation orgs that have that model. Apologies in advance for the long post, but there is some really good info below!

Oh, and how has the pheasant hunting been this year? Pretty darn good! Shot my limit of 3 in about 30 minutes last weekend. I average about 2 per time out and only hunt a few hours at most.

PHEASANT FACTS
•Weight: Male ring-necked pheasants (roosters) average 2 to 3 pounds while their female (hen) counterparts average 2 pounds.
•Length: Males measure 24 to 35 inches long (a rooster's tail accounts for more than 20 inches of length); hens are smaller with a much shorter tail.
•Flight Speed: 38-48 mph (but can reach up to 60 mph when chased)
•Favorite Foods: Corn, seeds, insects
•Preferred Habitat: Undisturbed grass
•Average Nest Initiation: Early May
•Average Incubation Start: Late May
•Length of Incubation: 23 days
•Average First Hatch: Mid-June
•Average Clutch Size: 12 eggs
•Average Nest Success: 40-60%
•Average Hen Success: 50-70%
•Average Rate of Chick Survival: 50%
•Major Nest Predators: Fox, raccoon, skunk, feral cats
•Major Adult Predators: Human, fox, hawk, owl

SURVIVAL

Rarely, if ever, does a pheasant die of old age. In fact, the average life span is less than 1 year. The pheasant is a prey species and must face major sources of mortality beginning the day it is laid in the nest as an egg.

•Survival Rate - Mild winter, good habitat: 95%
•Survival Rate - Severe winter, good habitat: 50%
•Survival Rate - Mild winter, poor habitat: 80%
•Survival Rate - Severe winter, poor habitat: 20%


WEATHER & HABITAT DRIVE PHEASANT POPulations

Weather is another extremely important factor in determining pheasant numbers. Severe winter storms can potentially decimate pheasant populations overnight. Cold wet springs can claim an equally devastating number of newborn chicks who do not develop the ability to regulate their own temperature until three weeks of age. The direct effects of weather are obvious—less obvious is the indirect role weather can play on pheasant numbers.

PHEASANTS THRIVE IN MILD WEATHER

Generally speaking, pheasants do best in mild weather conditions. Mild weather is especially appreciated during the nesting period, as the amount of rainfall can greatly determine nesting success. Rain is essential in that it spurs vegetation growth, creates nesting cover, and attracts insects for new broods to feed on. However, heavy rains or flash flood events can wash out nests before eggs hatch or wash away the young pheasants before they can escape the rising water.


As the nesting season progresses into June and chicks hatch, mild weather remains key for pheasants. Chicks become susceptible to exposure in elements that are too cold or too wet. In addition, periods of extended drought can adversely affect cover quality and make insects and food less available.

Winter: The Toughest Season

A 2°F night with even a moderate wind of 11 mph creates a wind chill of -25°F. How can pheasants survive such conditions?

The arrival of cold and snow don’t necessarily mean a death sentence for pheasants. In fact, these hardy birds can do remarkably well in even tough winters provided quality winter cover is available. Winter habitat includes grass cover for roosting at night, trees and shrubs to loaf in during the day, and food. With adequate habitat, pheasants’ body fat content can be at its highest in January.

Pheasants essentially need to burn 25 percent more energy to survive during extreme winter conditions. As an example, the temperature inside a high-quality shelterbelt - ideal cover from the cold - can be 5°F warmer.

Finally, the same wind that creates biting wind chills can also be a blessing, as it blows many farm fields free of snow and uncovers areas where pheasants can feed.

INDIRECT WEATHER EFFECTS

Hot dry summers can impede insect production, depriving chicks of the protein they need early in life. Drought conditions will stunt vegetation growth, reducing the amount of cover on the landscape and leaving birds vulnerable to winter storms. Precipitation is essential but too much or the wrong form at the wrong time can be the difference between a great and poor pheasant reproduction year.

IS THERE AN ANSWER FOR ADVERSE WEATHER?

Although weather conditions cannot be controlled, providing critical habitat elements (nesting cover, brood rearing cover, winter cover and food plots) when conditions are favorable is essential to helping pheasant populations rebound after a tough year. Known for their prolific nesting abilities, pheasants have been documented in some states to double their population in a given year provided seasonal weather is optimal for nesting success.

SHOULD BAG LIMITS & SEASONS BE ADJUSTED?

Ring-necked pheasants are promiscuous birds, and one rooster (male) may mate with as many as a dozen hens (females). Hunting males only removes "surplus" roosters not needed for reproduction in the spring. In addition, since hens and roosters are easily distinguished in wingshooting situations, pheasants are managed more conservatively than other upland gamebirds—as the hen segment of the population is protected from hunting. Thus, adjusting season length and bag limits on surplus roosters will have almost no effect on future populations!

HOW DOES HUNTING AFFECT ROOSTERS IN A PHEASANT POPULATION?

Survival of roosters in hunted populations is normally very low, but that is not a concern. In fact, hunters could harvest 93 percent of pre-hunt rooster numbers without harming the population. However, such a high rate of harvest is very unusual, if not impossible. The normal range is 45-65 percent. Adding an average crippling loss of 10 percent means that 55-75 percent of roosters are often removed from the fall population. In states where significant harvest occurs (Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota), rooster kill averages around 70 percent. Elsewhere, particularly in western states, fewer hunters and less interest usually result in a reduced harvest rate.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF HUNTING ON HENS?

Few states currently allow legal shooting of wild hen pheasants and there is little definitive data on how hen hunting affects reproduction. Some biologists have speculated that if more than 25-35 percent of hens were harvested, reproduction would decrease. The record is ambiguous—controlled hen seasons in Montana, Idaho, California, Iowa and Nebraska apparently did not limit reproduction, but data from Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota indicate the opposite. Due to the ambiguity and past traditions, we don't hunt hens today.

WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF RESTRICTING BAGS?

Reducing bag limits will have little effect on pheasant populations. In most states, the seasonal bag limit per hunter is only 2-4 roosters. The only reason to reduce bags is to more equally distribute the harvest among hunters. Considering the majority of hunters are active only during the first two weeks of the season, the effect of restricting daily bag limits would be minimal.

exactly!

Here ya' go:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=coyote+catching+cat+

Geno

"seasonal bag" should read "daily bag

Geno, thanks for the link!