The North Dakota Game and Fish Department has reported a 6% increase in the number of roosters heard during its 2025 spring pheasant crowing count survey compared to last year. RJ Gross, an upland game management biologist with the department, attributed this rise to favorable weather conditions over the past two winters. “We basically have had two really easy winters, especially for North Dakota standards, with not much snow and really nice temperatures,” Gross stated.
In the primary regions for pheasants, the southwest recorded 31.1 crows per stop, up from 28.8 in 2024. The northwest saw a slight decrease to 21.3 crows per stop from 21.5 last year, while the southeast increased to 18.6 from 16.2 crows per stop. In the northeast, which is not a main area for pheasants, counts rose to 6.5 crows per stop from last year’s five.
Gross remains optimistic about future prospects as the peak of the pheasant hatch approaches. “Entering the nesting season, residual grass cover looked good,” he noted. He added that May rains have improved nesting and brood rearing cover across North Dakota and combined with high overwinter survival rates and ideal nesting habitat conditions, things are looking positive for upland birds in certain parts of the state.
The annual pheasant crowing counts are conducted each spring throughout North Dakota by observers who drive specified routes of 20 miles each, stopping at set intervals to count roosters heard crowing over a two-minute period.
