Michigan DNR prepares to release thousands of pheasants for hunters
Max ReinhartThe Detroit News
Updated Oct. 19, 2026, 11:46 p.m. ET
Hunters in southern Michigan will get the chance to harvest a bird with deep connections to the state’s sporting history this fall and winter, Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials have announced.
Starting Oct. 20, DNR is releasing thousands of pheasants at 13 state game areas ranging from the southwest corner of the state all the way east through Metro Detroit and into the Thumb.
This is the seventh year for the program, which “gives (hunters) a chance to relive the good old days of pheasant hunting, which at one point was more popular than deer hunting,” Adam Bump, DNR’s upland birds specialist, said in a press release.
The program is drawing criticism from an animal rights organization, which is calling it an inhumane act that terrorizes the distinctive birds.
“Wildlife authorities should be in the business of protecting animals, not purposefully breeding birds to be blasted out of the sky and blown apart for hunters’ cheap thrills,” said PETA spokesperson Catie Cryar in a statement. “PETA is calling on the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to put its resources toward restoring animals’ habitats instead of condemning thousands of pheasants to terrifying deaths.”
The program is funded by the $25 fee Michigan hunters pay to obtain a pheasant hunting license.
DNR partners with the Michigan Association of Gamebird Breeders and Hunting Preserves on the program, with the association supplying the birds.
This year, they’re planning to release around 7,300 pheasants in two rounds, between Oct. 20 and Nov. 14, then between Dec. 1 and New Year’s Day. These dates coincide with pheasant hunting season dates in the southern Lower Peninsula, officials said.
Locations for the pheasant release include:
- Cornish (Van Buren County)
- Crane Pond (Cass County)
- Crow Island (Bay and Saginaw counties)
- Dansville (Ingham County)
- Erie (Monroe County)
- Gagetown (Huron and Tuscola counties)
- Lapeer (Lapeer County)
- Leidy Lake (St. Joseph County)
- Pointe Mouillee (Monroe and Wayne counties)
- Rose Lake (Clinton and Shiawassee counties)
- St. Johns Marsh (St. Clair County)
- Stanton (Montcalm County)
- Townline 16 (Bay County)
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For information, including parking details, hunters can visit the DNR website.
Ring-necked pheasants are ground-dwelling game birds that can grow more than 3 feet long, including their long tails. Males have iridescent copper-and-gold plumage, green heads, red facial patches and characteristic white neck rings while females are mottled tan and brown. The birds produce a distinctive fluttering rush of wings when startled into flight.
According to the state, pheasant hunting was popular in Michigan into the mid-1900s. However, the state’s wild pheasant population has steeply dropped since then as the birds have increasingly lost their grassland habitat to farmland and suburban development.
