Conservation status: Introduced and Naturalised. Geographical variation: New Zealand stock is a mix of subspecies; the most prominent being the ring-necked pheasant P. Common pheasant. Adult male. Queen Elizabeth Park, September Acclimatisation Societies released about 30 species of upland game birds throughout New Zealand, to provide sport for European colonists.
Common pheasants were among the first to be released, in Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Auckland from Numbers are lower in the South Island. The common pheasant is the largest introduced upland gamebird species established in New Zealand, weighing up to 1. The male is larger than the female and much more brightly coloured. The most prominent features of the male are its red facial wattle, iridescent blue-green head and neck feathers, distinctive white collar, and long, barred tail feather.
The body feathers are red and brown with intricate white margins and black barring. The female is much smaller with a short tail and subtly marked brown feathers with much finer black barring. When flushed, the male utters a loud throaty korrrk alarm call. Similar species: adult female and immature common pheasants may resemble helmeted guineafowl but lack the bony casque on the head and white-spotted grey plumage. They may also resemble weka and adult female and immature wild turkeys but are distinguished by having long tapering tail feathers and paler brown plumage.
Pheasants are most abundant in the northern and western regions of the North Island. In the South Island, it is mainly found in the drier areas of Canterbury and Nelson. In New Zealand, common pheasants inhabit a wide variety of open habitats, including grasslands, arable and pastural farmland, exotic forestry, deciduous woodland, coastal shrubland and road verges.
They have a strong association with areas where ink weed is common. The New Zealand pheasant population is estimated at , birds, with about 50, males shot each year during the winter game-hunting season. Its numbers are augmented through releases of captive-reared birds. Pheasant numbers increased rapidly after their release, but plummeted in the s following the release of ferrets and stoats and widespread laying of poisoned grain, both being measures implemented to control populations of introduced rabbits.
Pheasant populations have never fully recovered. Pheasants are not recognised as having any significant economic or conservation impacts beyond being a gamebird, with flow-on benefits to suppliers of hunting equipment and licenses.
Common pheasants are solitary outside the breeding season. Males are polygamous, mating with a number of females and taking no part in nest building or incubation. The main breeding season is from October to December, but eggs have been found from July to March. The nest is a bowl-shaped indentation in grass, well hidden among vegetation.
The average clutch size is 9 with a range of Their face and wattle are red. The tail is paler and has broad barring. Some races P. The so-called "melanistic" Pheasant is actually a mutant of the Common Pheasant P. The different races interbreed so there also many hybrids.
Pheasants have a varied diet which they forage for on the ground and occasionally in trees. Typically, the diet is seeds, berries, insects, worms, grass and fruit. During this critical time, chicks are extremely susceptible to cold, rainy weather.
Special thanks to Pheasants Forever biologists and South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks for providing some of the factual content listed in this article.
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