North Dakota Game and Fish reports that hunters may find more pheasants afield this fall. North Dakota Game and Fish bases this report on actual roadside bird counts:
Total pheasants observed (80 per 100 miles) are up 3.8% from last year. Broods per 100 miles (9.6) and average brood size (5.3) are similar to last year. The statewide number of pheasants observed per 100 miles is 57% above the 10-year average.
Pheasants observed in the northwest were up 7% to 85 pheasants per 100 miles. Broods per 100 miles and average brood size were also up just slightly to 10.5 broods, with an average brood size of 4.7 chicks.
…Results from the southeast showed 8.6 broods and 64 pheasants per 100 miles, down from 9.4 broods and 72 pheasants in 2025. Average brood size was 5 chicks.
…The highest counts were found in southwestern North Dakota, which indicated 112 pheasants and 13 broods per 100 miles, similar to 14 broods and 115 pheasants in 2025. Average brood size was 5.7 chicks.
…Observers in the northeast counted 5 broods and 43 pheasants per 100 miles, compared to 3 broods and 22 pheasants last year. Average brood size was 6 chicks [North Dakota Game and Parks, press release, 2026.09.09].
South Dakota Game Fish and Parks also is promising a big pheasant season, even though South Dakota Game Fish and Parks has no actual ringneck count on which to base its boosterism:
Conditions look favorable for another strong year of pheasant and grouse hunting in South Dakota.
That’s according to Tom Kirschenmann, director for the state Wildlife Division.
He spoke during the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission meeting in Winner on Friday.
Below average snowfall last winter, followed by near-average moisture and temperatures this spring, pointed to good nesting conditions for both species, according to Kirschenmann.
“Things look great and we’re really excited for the upland game seasons to begin,” he said [Bob Mercer, “Pheasant Hunting FOrecast for South Dakota Is Again Good,” KELO-TV, 2026.09.11].
Game Fish and Parks stopped counting pheasants in 2019, the first year of Kristi Noem’s anti-science gubernatoriate, out of fear that actual data might deter hunters from coming to South Dakota.
But I have to wonder what might draw more hunters: South Dakota saying, We think we have more birds, or North Dakota saying, We went out and looked, and we actually counted more birds?