Indiana · UplandRing-necked pheasant

Multiple independent Indiana DNR-sourced signals converge specifically on northwest Indiana. IDNR biologist Andy Byers, quoted in Pointing Dog Journal's 2026 forecast, describes wild pheasant populations as limited but stable where they exist, primarily in northwestern Indiana, naming Willow Slough Fish & Wildlife Area (Newton County) as a strong access point. Independent hunting-press sourcing corroborates that the winter of 1978 wiped out the quail and pheasant population in northern Indiana, which has never rebounded outside pockets like Willow Slough. DNR's own network of 33 Gamebird Habitat Areas (GBAs), state-owned land specifically managed for pheasant, quail, and dove, is concentrated entirely in five northwest Indiana counties (Benton, Newton, Jasper, Warren, White), the same corner of the state as Willow Slough. This is a habitat-investment/access footprint, not itself a density survey, but it lines up precisely with the population claim above rather than contradicting it. No IDNR-published statewide density map or zone system exists for pheasant (the species is regulated statewide, cocks-only in the wild, with the DNR's own put-and-take stocked hunts as a separate program).