A few Pheasants from around the world

1pheas4

Moderator
Below I have some photos of a few sub-speices pheasants. Pres1 and James feel free to correct me if my labeling is incorrect.:)

Mongolicus/Kirghiz

http://innature.kz/showphoto.php?photo_id=20275

http://innature.kz/showphoto.php?photo_id=16983

http://innature.kz/showphoto.php?photo_id=11120

bianchi ("afghan Whitewing")

http://pantarei.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/fazan.jpg

2 very old Bianchi and a mongolicus/Kirghiz mount
http://old.kpfu.ru/zmku/images/i067.jpg

caucasian???
http://hobbionline.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ohotyatsya-na-fazana-2.jpg

Who needs a shotgun and a dog when you have this guy and a slingshot:D
(pardon the Chinese commercial before the video)
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzc0Mzc5OTY4.html

I got a kick out of this; Guys in Russia (I believe) doing what we do here with our birds. Measure and compare tail feathers (there's a few pages of photos).
"UPH" of Russia. lol
http://www.ohotnik.dn.ua/showthread.php?t=3217
 
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Once again 1pheas4 great job on posting wild photos of our True Pheasant subspecies. If you find some of the old pheasant books about the origin of our wild pheasants, books like "Pheasant in North America" by D. L. Allen 1956 or " The Ring-Necked pheasant" by W. L. McAtee 1945, they clearly state that both Chinese ringneck and the Mongolian ringneck played an major part of the original wild stock.

A great number of our wild pheasant still carry a strong physical remnant of that old Mongolian pheasant gene along with the Chinese ringneck pheasant gene. Well over forty years ago at Ft. Riley Kansas I would flush many roosters with maroon rump big yellow eyes and thick ring not always a grey or olive rump.

Look at this link by wildlife photographer Roger Hill, the middle photo of two roosters one can clearly see that those two wild ringneck pheasants still have a strong Mongolian pheasant remnant in their gene pool. A world famous wild habitat photographer took the photos on both sides of Hill's photos. See link below:

http://www.mchenrycountypheasantsforever.org/LINKS.html

Now compare those photos Mongolian remnant pheasant to those of an rooster with mostly Chinese ringneck look (AKA blue back) :

http://www.kimsallawayphotography.com/archives/tag/pheasant

We spend lots of money traveling to hunt these great birds, its not a bad idea to learn a little about the genetic background about the birds we love to hunt. A great deal of blood sweat and tears (hard work) went into getting these great birds started in this country.
Thank you 1pheas4 for posting.
 
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this was one of the coolest posts I have ever read. Does anyone know about the origin of the all black with a bit of purple pheasants and the all white ones? Pretty cool stuff
 
I like 'em all!
 
Quailhound...what are doing holding back on that site man. lol Great photos. It's amazing how pure breed sub-species stand out. Just beautiful!!!


Here's a neat site. I believe it's from Korea:confused: There's 119 pages of pheasant photos on here. Though it seems all birds have been shot with a air riffle. It's still neat to look at birds from other counties.

http://blog.daum.net/qotjsemr/17190784

Preston1, I would have loved to see what you saw in Kansas! Those birds you speak of sound absolutely beautiful. I like darker birds like that.

What do you think about the theory that we may need another introduction of a breed (or breeds) that mates with multiple hens each spring instead of one hen? I've been looking at pictures of Chinese and Korean roosters with multiple hens surrounding him in the spring.

I'm not a fan of such (lighter) breeds, but if it's a possible solutions to our (IL/WI for example) declining bird numbers within areas with suitable habitats, it might be worth looking into:confused: I know it's a shot in the dark, but it seems more and more I'm hearing of folks telling me they see our roosters with one hen (myself included) and helping raise the chicks.
 
The more I look at the sub species of ringnecks and the wild birds I see around here the more Formosan I see in them.

1pleas4, I wonder if they have any polygamous roosters in Utah?:D
 
this was one of the coolest posts I have ever read. Does anyone know about the origin of the all black with a bit of purple pheasants and the all white ones? Pretty cool stuff

The white pheasant is primarily a heavy meat bird. When you buy a packaged pheasant (from Macfarlane game farm for example) your probably getting a white pheasant. I'm not sure of the history of this bird though. Someone else with more knowledge on the subject can help with the exact history of this bird.

The purple/blues/green pheasant you speak of is a Melanistic mutant pheasant. There's some pictures of Melanistics in Quailhounds link.

NOTE; This is a correction from information I posted earlier this evening regarding the Melanistic Mutant.

Jame Pfarr's book TRUE PHEASANTS A NOBLE QUARRY Pg. 178 and 179 goes into some detail of this bird. (There's a bit much to type out but I will quote James from pg. 179).

"This specimen originally occurred in the wild on Lord Rothschild's estate, but never with any segregated groups of just "melanistic" birds. It has basically been captive-reared from that point, with all existing feral populations being derivatives of birds released for sport. Because of this, they do exist throughout the UK and it's kinship countries, but only in broken populations or hybridized groups."

Here's a video of the Japanese Green (wild). They truly are a gorgeous bird and happen to be Japanese national bird! You'll notice they have a higher pitch cackle too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-VGARrdD4
 
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1pheas4 my pheasant friend, just a few comments on the one/rooster to one/hen theory. All True Pheasants roosters (common pheasants all subspecies) are by their nature polygamous. What is different is that some subspecies are more wary or alert when it comes to predators.

The warm spring sun and over 12 hours of daylight will jump start the roosters hormones and he is ready to crow, fight and mate. In the real wild world, the wild roosters will mate with every and any hen that makes herself available to him (thats not the case in the pen, in a closed pen he will mate with every hen, but in the wild world the hen plays a big part in who she will mate with). What is key now to dictating whether the rooster is polygamous or monogamous (one hen) is habitat conditions in the wild and the number of aerial and ground predators around. In a world full of meat eating predators that one hen may be that roosters only mate still alive and that one rooster may be trying to protect the hen and the chicks.

New authentic wild pheasant genes from true wild field of China or Korea would add predator wariness and alertness to the wild gene pool. I am convinced that the decline in wild pheasant numbers in good pheasant habitat in good weather conditions is only caused by vast increase in unseen predators. We need another infusion of wary and alert survival genes.
 
Preston, you are more knowledgeable on wild pheasants than I am so I'm going to ask for your patience as I pick your brain.

If you're willing I can post here or email you if you'd like.:)

Thanks!

Nick
 
Sorry. I realise now it was a poor attempt a humor.:(
 
Very cool! Thats some brood that hen pulled off. On the 4th page there's a pic of a rooster with just the slightest white ring showing showing a natural co mingling of subspecies in their native habitat. And how about that covey of huns? Very neat stuff.
 
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