I Like Birds by Stuart Cox

Author:Stuart Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Quadrille Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

FAMILY

Phasianidae – pheasants and partridges

HABITAT

Countryside – woods and fields

SIZE

Females 50–65cm long, males 75–90cm long

DIET

Seeds, berries and grasses

BREEDS

April–June, one brood

NEST

Hollow on the ground, hidden in undergrowth

EGGS

Seven to 15. Olive

RANGE

Introduced all across Europe from Asia

COLLECTIVE NOUN

Bouquet

OLD NAMES

Comet; cock-up; ffesant

A kaleidoscopic mix of colour, sound and stupidity, pheasants are a gamebird, non-native to Britain but introduced so long ago that they’ve become an iconic sight in the UK countryside. The males are almost a metre long, around half of which is the tail, with a mottled copper-coloured body, metallic green head, red wattles around the eyes and a distinctive white collar that gives them their North American name of ‘ring-necked pheasant’. The females are smaller and less ostentatious, patchy and brown, deliberately discreet to help them hide when nesting on the ground. Nesting pheasants can be easily missed – as I discovered. For three weeks one sat on its nest by the side of our house. Until one day it was gone. All that was left were the shells of freshly hatched eggs – the chicks had already wandered off with their mother.

Originally from Asia, the first British pheasants were brought from the Caspian Sea before 1066, possibly by the Romans, but extirpated by the 17th century. The first ring-necked pheasants came from China in the late 18th century, and they’ve been kept and raised by gamekeepers ever since. Birds that have escaped the gun have gone on to breed freely across Britain, highly suited to our countryside and climate. They nest under hedges and on the fringes of woodland, coming out in large numbers to feed on farmland, gobbling up seeds, fruits, insects and earthworms.

Given how much human intervention has shaped the pheasant, I’m never sure whether their stupidity is natural or deliberately bred-in. When alarmed they take off almost vertically, wings whirring and clapping, accompanied by a noisy ‘kark-kark’ call just in case they went unnoticed. When not flying they’re running, normally towards danger, never heading for the safety of the verge when taking on a car is an option.

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