This fall thousands of hunters will bring millions of ringneck pheasants home to be converted into delicious meals. Pheasants have been around so long that many people think of them as native birds. They’re not but they provide a lesson on how to structure a modern yard to attract wildlife.

In the 1880s Judge Owen Denny was stationed as a government agent in China. He and his wife took a fancy to colorful and tasty pheasants, which are native to Asia. They had some captured and shipped to Portland, Oregon where Denny’s brother released them on the family farm.  They reproduced like crazy, and just ten years later Oregon opened the nation’s first pheasant season. About 50,000 were shot.

Pheasants began spreading out on their own and people speeded the process by capturing many and releasing them all over the country. The birds never took hold in the hot humid south but thrived in northern farmland that was a patchwork of grain and hayfields separated by brushy fence rows. By the mid-1900s they were abundant in the Midwest and eastward to the Atlantic wherever farms provided the right habitat.

Pheasants live near human activity. They love farmland yet shun forests. The bird did well until enormous changes in agriculture took place in recent years.

Because of rises in grain prices, huge increases in the size of agriculture machinery and fields, and modern pesticides farmers began tearing out the brushy fencerows the birds loved.  As corn and soybean prices shot upward hayfields began to disappear. Pheasants lost safe places to nest.

Because of habitat loss pheasant populations are smaller than they once were but when habitat improves pheasant numbers swiftly rebound.  It’s a good lesson for homeowners.

Pheasants generally aren’t backyard birds because most people live in shady suburban neighborhoods or big cities. Homeowners with yards backing up to farm fields might enjoy pheasant visits but otherwise, the birds are denizens of agricultural land.

However, pheasants provide a graphic example of the importance of habitat that applies to all species, including the loved and valued wildlife that lives in suburbia – or might if they find good living conditions. Chickadees, woodpeckers, goldfinches, cottontails, barred owls and dozens of other fascinating animals enjoy sharing yards with humans. If backyard habitat is improved they will come.

Here are a few ways to structure a yard, even a tiny one, to attract a variety of interesting wildlife:

  • Create Diversity. Plant trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers that offer wildlife food and shelter. The greater the diversity of plants the greater the number of species that will take up residence.
  • Shun Pesticides.
  • Provide water. A tiny backyard pool or even birdbath will be appreciated by wildlife

Adding food might or might not help wildlife.  It depends on what expert you consult, but adding a feeder certainly encourages wild animals, especially birds, to come close to the window so they can be seen. One of the very best seeds to put in the yard is black oil sunflower, which many species enjoy. The worst is milo, which is shunned by native species but devoured by House Sparrows. Corn is inexpensive and enjoyed by many wild animals.

An exciting and rewarding project is converting a sterile mowed and sprayed lawn into a wildlife haven. Pheasants probably won’t come but dozens of beautiful and interesting animals will.