Day 42 - Fantastic Pheasants

Pheasant ( Phasianus colchicus) with Pigeon

hoping he doesn't pinch all the food

Hi all today's Day 42 and the end of my 6th week and for the occasion I've got something that I've been planning for a while. From the title you'll of probably figured out that today's blog post is all about Pheasants. Pheasants are amazing birds males have vibrant colours and fabulous plumage. Also female pheasants have almost the same coloured feathers as peahens! All in all they are remarkable birds and more evidence of this is in the facts below:

• Male pheasants are called roosters or cocks while females have the name hens which is another thing related to peacocks and peahens.

• Typically, pheasants can have a harem of up to 7 females and in each clutch they can have up to 12 eggs. Imagine if one pheasant mated with all 7 females! That'd be 84 eggs!

Pheasants furtling through leaves for food

• There is some debate about when pheasants were first introduced into Britain, some say it was by the Romans and others by the Normans as a game bird which it is still used as now. 

• It's estimated 35 million Pheasants are reared and released each year for shooting - have to say I prefer seeing them alive and well feeding on my bird table.

Two males that looked like they were having a disagreement

• It is part of the family Phasianidae which are probably one of the most important families of birds as one family member, the Red Junglefowl, was domesticated and over time became the modern chicken.

• Pheasants have no status because, as I mentioned earlier, they are an introduced species. This scenario is similar to what I said in my post about parakeets.

• They prefer a habitat of lowland, wooded farmland as this provides them roosting and feeding sites.

Here's a few links if you want to find out more about these colourful birds:

RSPB - Pheasant

BTO - Pheasant

BBC - Pheasant

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.