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| Male Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) |
Anyway, without further ado, here are the facts:
- Even though there are around 2.3 million breeding females in the UK, they have no status as they have been introduced to the UK a long time ago by the Romans for sport and hunting.
- There are 30 sub-species of the pheasant in the world but here in the UK we only have 6: colchicus, torquatus, mongolicus, principalis, pallasi, satscheuensis
- The are large birds being 71cm in length and having an 80cm wingspan. But they are very heavy birds with males weighing around 1.4kg and the females weighing a more dainty 980g.
- Even though there beak is quite short, they can dig up to 8cm depths in the ground for their food...
- ...Which consists of seeds, berries, leaves, roots and small invertebrates. See Pheasants feeding in my video below.
- As I said above, Pheasants were introduced by the Romans to the UK but they also live in other parts of the world too: Western Europe, Central Asia and China.
- Pheasants can be found across all of the UK except for the North and West parts of Scotland. They are most common in Arable Farmland so if you want to see a Pheasant, go to a farm in England.
- Their typical lifespan is unknown and I can't find the oldest Pheasant's age. The BTO think it's 2 years, 1 month and 1 day but I don't know if that could be a mis-print for 20 years.
- The reason for the typical lifespan being unknown is that they are not ringed or studies and probably as they won't come back for the next year as they will have been shot. :-(
- Males can breed with more than one female Pheasant and the female Pheasants will undertake all of the duties, like incubating the eggs and feeding them, on her own.
Here are some links to some more information:
Hope you enjoyed,
Z.
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