Ring-necked Pheasant parasitism of Lesser Prairie-Chicken nests in Kansas

We report observations of Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) parasitizing Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) nests in native sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia) rangeland in southwestern Kansas. We found low incidence of interspecific nest parasitism as only 3 of 75 prairie-chicken nests were parasitized. Two of the three parasitized clutches hatched, but no Ring-necked Pheasant chicks were known to have survived.