2021 Upland Game Bird Forecast

Courtesy MT FWP

Destination: SOUTHEAST MONTANA

Extreme drought, grasshoppers and hot conditions have taken their toll on habitat conditions and upland birds across southeast Montana.

It has been a long, dry spring and summer for agricultural producers and upland game birds alike.

The fall of 2020 provided fair to good bird numbers across most of the region and those birds found a very easy winter with little to no snowfall and limited severe weather.

Spring surveys for upland birds across Region 7 were looking promising. However,

A hot and dry early spring and summer resulted in poor habitat conditions, which may have contributed to poor nesting attempts by upland birds.

Although a drier spring is typically good for nesting upland birds, the spring of 2021 resulted in very little grass growth, which negatively impacted the nesting and brood rearing conditions for birds.

Gray (Hungarian) partridge populations in southeast Montana have been the slowest of the upland birds to rebound from the drought of 2017. The harvest for 2020 showed that numbers are on the rise but still below the long-term average. Gray partridge are considered something of a “bonus bird” in this area as the annual harvest is only about 2,400 partridges. Numbers will be similar to or lower than what they have been the past couple of seasons.

Pheasants continue to be the most popular upland game bird to pursue in southeast Montana. They are the most harvested upland game bird and support the most hunter days. The pheasant harvest last year was near the 10-year average of about 14,000. However, harvest is expected to be down from last year due to unfavorable habitat conditions.

Pheasants require different habitat than other uplands birds here, and with the severe drought even the riparian habitats are dried up and in rough shape habitat-wise. Locating residual grass cover will be key to bagging roosters this fall.

Hunters who want to bag pheasants will need to locate areas of high-quality habitat to be successful.

Sharp-tailed Grouse, the native prairie grouse, is the predominant and most widely distributed upland game bird in the region. Since an historic low of annual harvest in 2018, the 2020 harvest was near the 10-year average of about 14,000 and the stage was set for 2021 to be another good year.

But rapidly changing conditions had an impact on sharpies as well. Abnormally hot and dry June weather had an extreme effect on the upland prairie habitats found across the region. Hens had a tough nesting season this spring and have considerably fewer chicks than normal. High-quality brood-rearing habitats and residual cover will be the key to finding sharp-tails this fall.

Hunters looking to find sharp-tails will need to hunt harder and walk farther this fall,” he said.

The sage-grouse population continues to be viable across the region and with better habitat (expansive tracts of sagebrush) in the southeastern and northwestern portions of the region. The 2020 harvest was above the 10-year average, which is an indicator of good production. While harvest was up last year, hunter-related mortality does not negatively impact the population trend as there are only about 350 sage-grouse harvested annually across the region.

Sage-grouse lek counts were high this spring and bird numbers looked good. But sage-grouse nesting success was likely affected by the drought, as broods have been smaller than normal.