The Pleasant, Iridescent Pheasant

My 85-year-old neighbour, who grew up in the Okanagan, talked about the great pheasant hunting he enjoyed in his teens and 20s when our suburban neighbourhood was mostly bush, open forest and a few small orchards. Sadly, a pheasant is now a rare sight around here, and regardless, there is no longer anywhere nearby that is open to hunt them.

The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) was successfully introduced throughout BC in the late 1800s. The species name comes from Colchis, the ancient name for the country in the Caucasus now called Georgia, apparently where Europeans first encountered these birds. Pheasants are native to southern Asia but have been bred and released for sportsmen around the globe and are now are among the world’s most popular game birds. There are at least 50 species of pheasants across their native range and many subspecies and crossbreeds. Some of these other birds also have white neck rings, so our “ring-necked pheasant” is called “common pheasant” in much of the rest of the world. In BC, with only the one species established here, these birds are known simply as “pheasants.”

A cock pheasant is a special game bird, with attributes including beautiful plumage, large size (up to two kilograms), challenging to hunt and very tasty meat. The plumage of the hen pheasant is quite bland, a tan or pale brown body with wing and tail feathers liberally spattered with dark brown or black spots. The cock (or rooster) is much more colourful. His breast feathers are a rich copper colour and his back is pale brown or grey with small white spots. His extra long tail feathers (up to 60 centimetres) taper to a point, coloured in light brown with a series of parallel, narrow black bars along the entire length. His head is iridescent green or purple, with bright red wattles on either side, and accented by a narrow neck ring of white feathers.

Most pheasant species are wary birds, living in dense Asian forests. But the common pheasant prefers more open habitat with tall grass and brush, such as marshy areas and grassy edges of woodlands. These birds adapt well to farmland, particularly where there is a mix of open ground and natural cover along fence lines or areas too wet or too rough to farm. This preference for open habitats is likely one of the reasons that they are globally popular with hunters and common.

Pheasants nest on the ground, often in tall grass. A clutch has eight to 15 eggs and the hens will sometimes lay eggs in each other’s nests. Incubation lasts about three weeks and the chicks are able to get around and feed themselves almost immediately after hatching. A pheasant chick’s diet is usually high in insect protein. The adults prefer a more plant-based diet that includes seeds, berries and buds, but will eat many kinds of small animal prey like insects, spiders, snails and worms. In response to threats, these birds would rather run than fly, although they can explode into flight and apparently reach 80 kilometres an hour for short distances. Foxes, coyotes and large owls and hawks are the primary predators on adult pheasants, while racoons and skunks have a taste for pheasant eggs.

At one time, hunting wild pheasants was a popular and productive pastime in BC. In 1976, the first year of our current system of reporting hunting statistics, hunters reported harvesting almost 14,000 pheasants. At that time, hunters found these birds in every region of the province, although in Skeena, Omineca and Peace regions the harvest was usually small. Unfortunately, those days are gone. Habitat lost to more intensive farming, as well as expanding industrial, agricultural and residential development, has taken a toll on pheasant numbers and the hunting restrictions associated with that development have limited hunter access. By the year 2000, the reported hunter harvest had fallen to about 2,000 pheasants and has remained fairly static since. Consistently, the most hunter harvest has been from the Lower Mainland and Okanagan regions, although there are currently pheasant hunting seasons in Vancouver Island, Kamloops and Kootenay regions as well. However, these days not many BC hunters even see a wild pheasant, and fewer still see one in an area open to hunting. Those that do, though, can enjoy pursuing a beautiful and challenging game bird and, with luck, a very pleasant pheasant dinner.