December 2019 • Nebraskaland 25
In fall and early winter, pheasants feed heavily on grains
and other seeds to build fat reserves in preparation for the
coming cold. During blizzards, they can hunker down in thick
cover and survive on fat for several days without eating.
Pheasants can lose 40 percent of their body weight before
succumbing to starvation, and even in severe winters few die
this way.
Most winter mortality occurs when birds are fl ushed from
cover or leave voluntarily to feed and die from exposure or
predation. Having a food source close to winter cover is
advantageous, as pheasants burn less energy traveling to
the food and are exposed for shorter periods of time while
feeding.
In farm country, grains, especially corn and soybeans,
are a prime winter food for pheasants. Soybeans, however,
contain digestive inhibitors that restrict their food value
to birds. Pheasants seem aware of this and preferably winter
in marshes adjacent to cornfi elds rather than soybean fi elds.
The seeds of marsh plants are also an important winter
food. Many a hunter has found pheasant crops packed with
the large and energy-rich seeds of barnyard grasses, giant
ragweed, sunfl owers, docks, smartweeds and other marsh
plants. In the Sandhills, where crops are limited, pheasants
survive winter solely on the nourishment provided by
wetland and prairie plants.
"In dry years, before the marshes freeze, pheasants will
forage on the exposed shorelines and mudfl ats. Often they
scratch up and eat these fi ngernail-sized white tubers,"
Nenneman said. "I am not sure what plant they are from.
They also go after the energy-rich seeds of annuals, such as
barnyard grass and smartweeds, which grow on the mudfl ats
and shorelines as water levels recede in summer."
Under the right conditions, and if the other birds don't get
it all fi rst, they will eat the grains of wild rice that grows in
The tall, dense vegetation of Sandhills marshes provides excellent cover for pheasants when winter sets in.
