Exotics

shorthairs4life

shorthairs4life

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Invited to a hunt club today and picked up my first exotic pheasant. It was a black pheasant (hen). It was left over from an exotic hunt 3 weeks ago. It definitely surprised me when I flushed. We picked up one more hen black pheasant. I wish we had found a male, I wanted to get a pair mounted. The black pheasants are in the middle in the pic. Are these exotic types ever found in the wild?
 
The pheasant in the middle is not an "exotic" it came from a ringneck pheasant.
The pheasant in the middle is a Melanistic Mutant pheasant, it is basically a color phase change or mutation of the regular ringneck pheasant. After 50 or 60 generations of living in pens and years of inbreeding you can see changes in the color phase of pheasants, as well as quail.

It is not a sign of wildness but a sign of domestication. In large orders of pen raised birds they some times show up. You frequently see them on shooting preserves and preserve hunts.

Look at the close photo below of a melanistic mutant rooster and hen:

http://pacawijetechickens.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/7/7/4077052/3275827_orig.jpg?522

If you have to order pen raised pheasants (with all of the ground and aerial predators on the loose now days) I would recommend the wilder strains of predator wary and predator alert true pheasant (ringneck type) like the Manchurian-cross pheasant or the Afghan Whitewing pheasant (also know as Bianchi pheasant).
 
Besides the lack of tail feathers that Black and blue one is really cool looking. I would have it mounted... but my wife would not let me put it anywhere so it would not matter :(
 
My Dad shot a black rooster on a waterfowl production area back in October. Wild or not is anyones guess but they don't stock wpa's for pheasants and there isn't any game farms in the area. Anybody can buy pheasants and release them though. It was a very cool bird though. He said he never wouldn't have shot it if it wasn't for the cackle. No ringneck,but it had kinda long tail feathers,spurs,and red patch on it face.
 
For fifteen or twenty years both Macfarlane Pheasant Farm in Janesville and Toubl in Beloit raised and sold Afghan Whitewing pheasants (Bianchi pheasant). I am sure land owners and private individuals could have released some of the whitewing pheasants in the area.

See photo below of wild Bianchi (White Winged pheasant) (Ringneck Type) in the wild in New Mexico, along the Rio Grande river. This sub-specie of the ringneck have been wild and expanding in that area for more than 45 years see photo below

http://www.pbase.com/silverbowff/image/38925285

Your Dad may have shot an afghan whitewing pheasant (bianchi pheasant) when duck hunting, because they like the thick swampy areas. And they frequently cackle as a danger warning to the other pheasants.

The Bianchi pheasant is an authentic wild sub-specie of the wild ringneck and have existed in the wild for thousands and thousands of years. The lack of a full ring around the neck is not a Mutation. And the Bianchi hens are almost identical to a ringneck hen, maybe a bit smaller.

Ask your father to look carefully at the photos of Melanistic Mutant Phaeasant and the photos for the Bianchi pheasant ringneck (afghan whitewing) and see which bird looks the closest to the rooster he shot.
 
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It was a melanistic for sure. Although I live in Janesville this wpa was no where near Janesville. I have the picture on my iphone if anybody wants to pm me their cell phone number and I can text it. Bird was almost pure black except for the red on his face,blue/green across his back and wings in the sunlight. His tail feathers were black, and dark brown/gray barred. It was shot in classic praire grass you'd find wild pheasants in early in the season. Cattails and alder swamps weren't far away though.
 
My Dad bagged a large, black Rooster in the Deer Lodge Valley, MT in the '50's . . . I was wee little then, but I still remember it. He had seen the bird a couple times earlier & finally the dog was able to pin it down. That was long before exotics were in-vogue & certainly not in that country. Had to have been melanistic.
 
I've seen the black pheasant while hunting a pay per bird hunt club near Fon du Lac. Very black and a cool looking bird. Didn't know they might exist in the wild, though.
 
Bianchi

The rooster that is 2 over from the right of the black pheasant (in the original post pic) is a white wing bianchi in your picture. I didn't know if it was a different strand or not but it did not have a ring around its neck and it had some great deeper purple in its chest.
 
Obama bird

shorthairs4life said:
Thanks for the explanation Preston. I wish we would have found a male it looks pretty nice. It was a nice change of pace.
Click to expand...

Oughta show them the picture that captures the size difference of the one you shot Sunday.
Watching Oskar track that bird still cracks me up
 
Size Comparison

Attached is a photo of the melanistic bird mentioned in the previous post. The melanistic bird was a good 4 inches longer and about a pound heavier.
 
The white Rooster

I was driving around and I saw a phesant fly over the road in to this field but I could not hunt that day do to it being past hunting time. So I went back the next day and asked the owner of the land if I could hunt and she said yes but asked me not to shoot the white phesant her words were "just don't shoot the white one." At first I thought she was crazy but I was wrong. I got my first rooster in a corn field which lead to this red brush which was right next to a marsh. Right on the edgeof the marsh my dog went on point then... flush the white rooster takes off to the right of me and flys right in front of me cacking loud and clear. I had my gun up to my shoulder but did not pull the trigger it was awsome!!! I ended up getting my limit and as I was at my truck giving my dog water and putting stuff away the lady comes out and says how did you do? I showed her the 2 roosters and she said they were nice ones I thank her for letting me hunt then she starts to walk away then she turned around and asked me if I saw the white one and I said yes I did had a great shot at it but let it go like she asked. She thanked me and just kept walking. I been back and have not seen it agian but she says she stills see's it from time to time.
 
519vx said:
Rem - what general area was that in? I would love to see one as well. :thumbsup:
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Just north if the Illinois state line...(sorry 519, just the smart-ass in me):D
I wouldn't give away my secret honey hole, Rem. You got a great thing goin'. Guard it with your life, unless someone offers to take you to their honeyhole first, be selective.
 
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Taken several years ago in South Central South Dakota--I'm sure it is just a color phase of the standard ring neck pheasant--never the less a really cool looking bird and it has been mounted. :cheers:

052.jpg
 
sorry I have been fishing

I can not tell where or what area my best spot is and I would not wanna trade best spots. I aslo Did not shoot the white phesant and as of last season the bird was still around and maye be One day the land owner will say it's ok to kill the white one
 
birddog456 said:
Just north if the Illinois state line...(sorry 519, just the smart-ass in me):D
I wouldn't give away my secret honey hole, Rem. You got a great thing goin'. Guard it with your life, unless someone offers to take you to their honeyhole first, be selective.
Click to expand...

To be crystal clear - I wasn't looking for his "hot spot" nor the specific location of where the white bird lives. Gimme a break. :mad: I was simply curious in very general terms. Sorry I asked.

SDJIM - cool looking bird! :thumbsup:
 
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