Black Pheasant (1 Viewer)

[Vick2903]

When on holiday in Wales last year looking for the elusive Black Grouse (which we did see eventually) on our travels through the backways we saw a Black pheasant - are these a sub species - Can anyone tell me anything about them please! o

 

[TWM]

I think you will find it was a normal pheasant that was melanistic.
Basically the opposite to albino, caused by an imbalance in it's pigmentation. That is not a scientific answer, more a calculated guess!!! Tim

 

[Vick2903]

Thank you - we have been wondering about it since we saw it

 

[shelley810]

I have a neighbor that is one that raises and introduces pheasant back into the population, sorry to say, that they do this for sport.
He had mentioned that there is a seperate species of pheasant from the ring-neck called the Japanese Green Pheasant. The females of this breed have thick chest with black feathers...he calls them Black Pheasant.... don't know if that is of any use to you with what you saw in Wales.
shelley

 

[saluki]

When on holiday in Wales last year looking for the elusive Black Grouse (which we did see eventually) on our travels through the backways we saw a Black pheasant - are these a sub species - Can anyone tell me anything about them please! o

Gamekeepers sometimes rear black pheasant and put them in one particular covert. They can then tell where the pheasants are straying to and possibly prevent it. The black pheasant I've seen were originally developed in France, and are black, showing little of the background colour as in melanistics. As shelley says Japanese Greens are darker (and smaller) than the usual pheasant. They are sometimes released in the UK (I've released them in Argyll) but I found them difficult to flush, preferring to run than fly.

saluki

 

[KnockerNorton]

I've been passing one on the A14 all week. It doesn't seem to have moved much from lying on its back at the central reservation!

 

[Steve]

I saw this one in scotland.

 

[KnockerNorton]

Yup, flip it upside down and add a few flies, and it looks just like mine.

 

[Vick2903]

Luckily my one looked like the picture and was wandering across a field - However did the one on the central reservation need a bath you would have thought so wouldn't you if it had flies round it!!! I personally prefer the one I saw! o

 

[Vick2903]

I am going back to wales in a couple of weeks will see if I can get a picture! and no I do not want to see one of the dirty bird on the central reservation ta! o

 

[TWM]

Back to reality!! As Saluki says it is more likely the one you saw was specifically bred for its colour. It is still a Common Pheasant but has been the result of breeding to get the colour--- like you get green, blue, yellow etc Budgies. Devious lot these Gamekeepers! Tim

 

[ashrich]

Yoy want to come to the Hambleden Valley , we have an area called Pheasants Hill ( actual name ) and we have hundreds of them , together with loads of wandering Guinea Fowl , all released around Christmas time and still doing the rounds of the ploughed fields .


Ashley

 

[Vick2903]

Is Hambleden Valley in Oxfordshire - I am not great at geography sorry!

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

Here's a series of Japanese Green Pheasants (Phasianus versicolor):

http://www.pheasants.netfirms.com/Green.htm

It is quite similar to the dark (melanistic) Common Pheasants. Try and compare the photos on above link with the nice photo of a melanistic Common Pheasant in post #7. The two can be hard to separate, but the best feature may be the grey patch on the wing coverts of the Japanese Green.

 

[ashrich]

Is Hambleden Valley in Oxfordshire - I am not great at geography sorry!

The Hambleden Valley is on the Bucks / Oxon border , more in Bucks though , just down the road from Henley-on-Thames ......which is in South Oxfordshire.

Ashley

 

[Nina P]

This is the one I had visit last year in my garden, was it a female like this one?
I now have a pair of normal coloured Pheasants and they looks like they will breed close to my garden.

 

[Touty]

When on holiday in Wales last year looking for the elusive Black Grouse (which we did see eventually) on our travels through the backways we saw a Black pheasant - are these a sub species - Can anyone tell me anything about them please! o

The Italian (hunters) call them 'i tenebrosi'... literally 'of the shadows' or 'shadowy' (like the new pope if you ask my opinion). They're smaller than the regular birds and reckoned to be a bit more savvy and better adapted to survival in the wild. No collar, (so 'colchius' like the original pheasant from Turkey) they sleep in trees (unlike some of the game-farm 'Michael Moore-style' pheasants which are too fat to get off the deck). Very common and popular with hunters here.

 

[TWM]

The Italian (hunters) call them 'i tenebrosi'... literally 'of the shadows' or 'shadowy' (like the new pope if you ask my opinion). They're smaller than the regular birds and reckoned to be a bit more savvy and better adapted to survival in the wild. No collar, (so 'colchius' like the original pheasant from Turkey) they sleep in trees (unlike some of the game-farm 'Michael Moore-style' pheasants which are too fat to get off the deck). Very common and popular with hunters here.

I thought EVERYTHING was popular with hunters there!

 

[Dynbach]

Black Pheasants (Melanistic Mutant)

I saw this one in scotland.

Steve,
Today whilst travelling between Dunkeld and Crieff (direct as opposed to A9 route), I spotted several of these birds about 3 miles west of Dunkeld.
At first I thought I was seeing things but the wife confirmed what we saw.
Looking on the web, came across the Melanistic Mutant which is recorded as a pure bred.
Mainly black with an inkling of green through its plumage, the ones we saw were about 30m away from the roadside. They were with other comman pheasants.
Regards
Dynbach

 

[delia todd]

Steve,
Today whilst travelling between Dunkeld and Crieff (direct as opposed to A9 route), I spotted several of these birds about 3 miles west of Dunkeld.
At first I thought I was seeing things but the wife confirmed what we saw.
Looking on the web, came across the Melanistic Mutant which is recorded as a pure bred.
Mainly black with an inkling of green through its plumage, the ones we saw were about 30m away from the roadside. They were with other comman pheasants.
Regards
Dynbach

Hi Dynbach - I see this is your first post, so may I welcome you to Bird Forum.

I know that road well; presumably they were somewhere near the Rumbling Bridge junction.

That would have been a lovely run today through the Sma' Glen.

D