Texas · UplandRing-necked pheasant

Ring-necked pheasant in Texas is confined to the Panhandle/High Plains, matching the regulation's note that the season is legally restricted to a subset of Panhandle/High Plains counties rather than statewide. TPWD's own pheasant-management page for the High Plains describes the establishment history directly: first reported in the Panhandle in 1940, occupying at least 18 counties by 1950 (primarily along river/tributary riparian corridors), then expanding to 33 counties across the High Plains and Northern Rolling Plains by 1977 following propagated releases in Lubbock, Bailey, Hale, Carson, Gray, Crosby, Terry, and Swisher counties and southward expansion past the Canadian River 'break country' that had previously blocked the species' spread. Today the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas Project documents breeding/nesting activity in at least 34 Panhandle counties, and TPWD conducts 44 twenty-mile roadside pheasant counts annually across the region. The Panhandle is the species' sole stronghold in the state, with a long-term population decline documented since 1977.