Pheasants....

[Chipchopper]

I often get them coming into the garden from the surrounding countryside, looking for crumbs beneath the hanging peanut feeders.
So far I've only seen male birds.

Do they tend to release only the males ?

[2sp_]

Pheasants are released in late summer/early autumn, so the ones in your garden are at least a year old now.

The reason you are only seeing male birds at the moment is that the females are sitting on nests.

[Chipchopper]

Thank's 2sp.

Believe it or not, about 15 minutes after my post, I looked out of the window and saw a female bird there, for the first time!.

I guess it was taking a break from nesting or maybe a fox had found the eggs ?

[2sp_]

The females do leave the nest from time to time.

They are notoriously bad mothers! Usually start off with about a dozen chicks and tend to loose most if not all of them! It's a wonder there are any wild pheasants about at all.

[indie_chick5]

We get pheasants milling around a lot at work, our office is in the countryside in Cornwall. We have males and females but we don't see the males or females together, just couples at a time, they seem to get quite territorial. They are also very tame, they know when I open the window and shake the bird seed and come running over waiting to be fed. We've not ever seen any chicks though, but we hope too soon.

[chaptazbru]

I actually saw a male and female pheasant this morning when out walking my dog. They weren't in the least scared of me and I managed to have a really good look at them. This was a rare sighting for me as you don't see many pheasants in Warringtoin !

[Chipchopper]

I think it's good to know that some escape the hunt and manage to survive in the wild. The ones that come into my garden seem to have found a safe haven in some extensive bramble patches near-by.
The females are perfectly camouflaged for sitting unseen on the nest, but I can't understand why the males give the game away by making so much noise.

[chaptazbru]

Do you think the ones I saw were not originally wild?

[heathfield]

I live in a part of the country renowned for having loads of pheasants, with the suicidal ones making for dodgy driving on minor roads. But Chipchopper's post made me realise that I hadn't see any female ones lately either, alive or dead. Maybe they've developed road sense, and are staying clear of highways any byways!

[Chipchopper]

I'm not sure Chaptazbru,
They was apparently introduced to this country from Asia in the 17th century and have been a common game bird ever since.
I think feral populations, do exist but may have died out if not for captive breeding, Who knows ?

[Chipchopper]

Good observation there Heathfield!

Maybe they are like the rabbits that learnt that they where safe on the road providing they sat tight and kept between the car headlights, that worked fine until some idiot came along in a three wheeler :-)

[2sp_]

More pheasants are killed by predators like foxes, buzzards and cats (feral and domestic) and cars than by folk shooting them.