Ornamental Pheasant

[robber]

The Father in law spotted this under the neighbours bird table. I'm convinced its an ornemantal, bred in captivity pheasant but have been unable to find anything quite like it.

Any thoughts?


thanks

Neil

[AshLee]

This thread might interest you:
Something of a surprise

Very similar!

[earthdragon64]

It's a "normal" pheasant, with melanistic colour, which I think is basically an increase in the dark pigmentation. It can happen naturally in quite a few species I think.

I saw a couple of these fairly locally to me last year, and also a white pheasant as well.

[epops]

theres abit about this particular coloured pheasant here Pheasant (gobirding.eu)

[Cowgirl]

I've seen quite a few around here, I think it just depends on the preferences of the shooting estate.

I like them they are rather pretty (not any more intelligent than the regular sort tho', still road suicidal!)

[robber]

excellent, I knew the answer would be here somewhere. Thanks for your help.

Neil

[caernerch]

There are a few different types and shades in between of our P. colchicus and P. torquatus, this one looks closest to the dark green 'melanistic mutant'. I've seen the blue rumped P.formosanus in Speyside a couple of times - stunning birds. There are illustrations of these and others in Colins's Birds of Britain & Europe (Heinzel, Fitter & Parslow).
caernerch

[Synn]

I've heard of darker pheasants being called Purple Pheasants, or a Purple variation