A few Pheasants from around the world

 
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Nice photos Nick, great to see pure true pheasants from the Kirghiz group (P. c. mongolicus) commonly called the Mongolian ringneck pheasant. And the photos shown in the wild state on a google map, not in a zoo.

A large number number of our North American pen raised ringneck pheasants originally stocked at the beginning of the stocking era (over 100 years ago) were made up of a fine combination of Chinese ringneck (P. c. torquatus) and Mongolian/Kirghiz ringneck (P. c. mongolicus). One hundred years ago those birds were close to F1 (recently removed from the wild state).

A lot of our ringneck brood stock 100 years ago in the Midwest and Northeast came from England.
The state of Kansas in 1906 received their original ringneck brood stock from England.
Those early English pheasants were made up of many true pheasant subspecies including the white-winged pheasant group (P. c. principals) but mostly Chinese ringneck and the Mongolian ringneck. See link below.
http://www.thefield.co.uk/shooting/the-history-of-the-pheasant-22364
 
A little late getting to this (and I may have already posted it - I know I did on another board I frequent), but here is a few Francolin I killed in Zimbawe, Africa back in June of this year. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think they are in the pheasant family....

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Francolins are in the Phasianidae Family (all chicken-like wild birds).

But most of the photos and discussions on this thread are about the True Pheasant ( Genus Phasianus colchicus or P. c. in front of the name that is the same specie of many subspecies) also called the Common Pheasant ringneck type (hunting pheasant) and their many subspecies. Look at the article below.

The pheasant families around the world includes a vast variety of wild "chicken-like" birds, look at the link below that gives more information on the Phasianidae Family:
http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/pheasants.html
 
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Great videos Nick. Good close up views of these tough wild and strong Korean Ringneck pheasants.

The F1 wild Korean ringneck pheasant were used extensively to build up and establish a huntable reproducing wild population of pheasants (along with the Chinese ringneck pheasants) in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Check out the links below:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3799981?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=fNgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1259,3568916&hl=en

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/70658574/

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=apoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3599,1381498&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=hNQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1431,1844543&hl=en

Years ago I was able to obtain from Mo. some of those Korean ringneck pheasants they were wary birds. To me they were identical in appearance to the Chinese ringneck.

According to Jean Delacour the difference is is that the Korean ringneck rooster's white ring around the neck is uninterrupted in the front.

One other note, just north of the Korean border north of the Yalu River in China, three True Pheasant subspecies (all in the Grey-Rumped Pheasant group) naturally overlap the Chinese ringneck, the Korean ringneck and the Manchurian ringneck.
 
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As always, thank you for all your links/useful information Preston!

Here's an interesting video of two Versicolor Pheasants fighting (Japan). While doing so, a crow seems to have his sights set on pulling a tail feather from one of them. I'm not sure what a crow needs a pheasant's tail for.:confused:

https://youtu.be/crKtud5EFro?list=PLVj8_VNfxd3XYUCerT-bc7WGpx-RBBTjx

This video shows a handsome Versicolor up close. As I've mentioned in the past, the Versicolor pheasant is Japan's national bird.

https://youtu.be/8SqYprsxDGg?list=PLVj8_VNfxd3XYUCerT-bc7WGpx-RBBTjx
 
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Bill MacFarlane, recently released an update on the special qualities of what they call the "Afghan Whitewing Pheasant". This True Pheasant is also called the Bianchi Pheasant. See link Below:

https://www.gamebirdexpert.com/index.php/the-afghan-pheasant-is-a-special-bird/

Over the past 50 years this particular true pheasant sub-specie have adapted well to the wild everywhere he is released. But most importantly they have help to expand the wild pheasant range in the southwestern states of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.

In a world loaded with hungry meat eating predators, that loves to eat wild pheasants. The White-Winged pheasants have added awareness, alertness and agility to the wild ringneck gene pool. Helping them to quickly escape from predators.

One other note of interest, every wild ringneck pheasant ( that crossed with the white-winged pheasants) along the the predator loaded Rio Grande and Pecos rivers in New Mexico has yellow iris. I have a theory on why this is important.

Check out the link below of photos of wild pheasant at Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico:

https://www.google.com/search?q=bos...=Ygz0V6SsHceRmQGd7KzwBQ#imgrc=QNMITHRTfD1B8M:
 
In the link below scroll down six photos to the ringneck pheasant. This wild pheasant is out side of the fence, not in a pen. This is a good front and side profile of an authentic wild pheasant, the Grey-Rumped group (ringneck family) P. c. hagenbecki) also called the Kobdo ring-necked pheasant.

http://niaolei.org.cn/posts/52207

The photo was probably taken in north central China near Mongolia. The pheasant is identical in appearance to the Manchurian (P. c. pallasi) but with a wider white collar , and without the white spot on the check, which is frequently seen in the Manchurian. Also notice the light yellow iris.

I am sure there is overlap or intermediary zones or geography where both the Manchurian ringneck pheasant and the Kobdo ringneck overlap and cross.
As I have said before we need to get more these authentic wild ringneck genes added to the wild over here, to fortify the wild, alert and predator/wary genes here. And to expand the wild pheasant range.
 
Preston1 said:
As I have said before we need to get more these authentic wild ringneck genes added to the wild over here, to fortify the wild, alert and predator/wary genes here. And to expand the wild pheasant range.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your info/link/photos Preston! We value your insight and knowledge on the subject of wild/true pheasants!

Earlier this fall I released a cross breed ringneck/Manchurian, the small flighty K Thunder from Macfarlane. The hens are very alert birds. Both hens and roosters are very strong flyers.

So far so good. I'm trying to get the wild birds to cross breed with the released birds to see what will happen with bird numbers. The area has good habitat but the birds are stagnant:confused: Hopefully they can breed in the spring and increase their numbers greatly compared to what's back there right now.

On another note. I pushed an area yesterday that has wild ringneck pheasants plus the state's pen raised birds. To this day, despite huge numbers of pen raised roosters being released (with Manchurian blood lines), they have yet to cross breed into the wild populations. The wild pheasants are a completely different bird. So it seems either 1. the wild roosters are not allowing the pen raised roosters to breed or 2. the wild hens are not finding the pen raised rooster suitable for mating or 3. both.

It seems we have to find a way to get the two to cross. I believe this will give us a bird that is NOT so reluctant to cross roads, highways, or woods/forested areas to get to another habitat or food source area.
 
Thanks for the positive comments.

Keep up the good work on the release of the Manchurian-cross and the K Thunder. You of course well know that all Illinois wild pheasant started from pen raised pheasants first released in 1890 and in 1904. Over time your new birds will make an impact but it may take 5 or 6 years of stocking. Newly released pheasants may move in all directions, so several attempt and several years of eating wild food and developing wild pheramones and getting lucky and have a successful hatch, then you should see results. Check out link below:

http://www.lib.niu.edu/2002/oi021206.html

This is my take on the your Manchurian cross release pheasants crossing with the wild Illinois. They will cross but it will talk a long time. Lets call the Ill. wild pheasants the North Ill. tribe, his group have been building up in the wild for over 120 years. So you probably have hundreds of thousands or maybe a million of that original Illinois pheasant tribe (wild) in every field and weedy lot in north central Illinois.

So the chances of finding a Manchurian-wild Illinois cross would be rare or very remote, but there is no way to say that Manchurian- wild Illinois cross does not happen. The bird will cross over time.

I would simple like to see the wild pheasant range expand, giving more hunters chances to flush truly wild pheasant. Not tame preserve pheasants.
 
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Preston1 said:
Newly released pheasants may move in all directions
Click to expand...

That's what they did. The last time I was out there I could hear them cackling from all directions. I was impressed how soon they found other habitat areas around the property.

A few weeks ago I saw one of the roosters walking outside some cover (along the road). I turned my truck around to run/flush him away from the road (I want them to fear cars and people as much as possible). As soon as I started heading back his way he ran into the cover. Very fast too! He disappeared deep into the cover within a split-second.

Also, and I know this is going to sound really funny to a lot of people, but one other thing I did (just prior to releasing) was wash their feet and tails in clean pond water. After removing all the dirt and strong smelling "pheasant-pen" sent, I sprayed them with a fairly heavy coat of sent block. I know from experience that the first few nights in the wild are some of the most deadly for pen-birds. I figured if I can remove as much "pheasant-pen" sent/smell from them as possible they may have a better chance of making it through the night. Based on the number of surviving birds I could hear cackling weeks after release, it seemed to work.

When I purchased these birds, I made sure it was as early in the season as possible too. They weren't to a point where they were used to people coming in and out of their pens. They still has a healthy, natural fear of people. Particularly the hens. Plus, corn was still up. This allowed them to feed in the safety of standing corn and explore the property plus become familiar with what's-what.

Time will tell what happens from here.
 
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Very informative and very interesting.

Keep it coming. You guys are fantastic.


Sure would like learn how states like Illinois can
get repopulated!?
 
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