Good habitat next to a good feeding area is always worth hunting in the late morning and early afternoon. Sometimes it's quite possible to find places where feeding and loafing habitats are one and the same. Any grainfield that's unharvested or holds a jungle of weeds can hold birds at any time of the day. In the southern half of pheasant country, if you can find a field of summer-cut wheat that's clogged with assorted weeds you can expect to find birds anytime from sunrise to sunset. For the most part, however, as the shadows begin to lengthen a pheasant's schedule usually will go into reverse as the birds move from loafing to feeding areas, and finally to roost.
Variables Keep in mind that normal patterns can be affected by abnormal conditions.
For instance, extremely warm weather may have the birds leaving their roosting areas when it's not light enough to shoot, feeding for just a few minutes and then scattering about in marginal cover since staying warm isn't a concern. It can be some of the toughest hunting of the season, as the birds are prone to run in the more open loafing cover. In times of drought, look for any feeding or roosting area that's near a dependable source of water. Hit the same area with a blast of arctic cold and snow the following week and the birds will linger longer in their roosting spots as they wait for the day to warm. And they may feed straight through the day as they try to stoke their internal furnaces to fight the frigid conditions.