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Common Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernOmnivoreUrbanScrapeLarge · 1.1 kg
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 1
Photo: Romzig · CC0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 2
Photo: Stephan Sprinz · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 3
Photo: Stephan Sprinz · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 4
Photo: carnifex · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 5
Photo: John Lyden · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 6
Photo: Jason Thompson · CC0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 7
Photo: Jason Thompson · CC0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 8
Photo: François Dunoyer · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 9
Photo: François Dunoyer · CC BY 4.0
Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), photo 10
Photo: Romzig · CC0

What the Common Pheasant sounds like

Sonogram of the Common Pheasant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Sonothèque ADVL · Wings noise · Granville, Manche, Normandie, France · CC0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Common Pheasant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Sonothèque ADVL · Song · Îles Chausey, Granville, Manche, Normandie, France · CC0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Common Pheasant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Gobi · Call · Bologna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy · CC0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

There are many colour forms of the male common pheasant, ranging in colour from nearly white to almost black in some melanistic examples. These are due to captive breeding and hybridisation between subspecies and with the green pheasant, reinforced by continual releases of stock from varying sources to the wild. For example, the "ring-necked pheasants" common in Europe, North America and Australia do not pertain to any specific taxon, they rather represent a stereotyped hybrid swarm. Body weight can range from 0.5 to 3 kg (1 to 7 lb), with males averaging 1.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Common Pheasant

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 11 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is May, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Common Pheasant

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 77 countries with regular records, and 7 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

United States United Kingdom Sweden France Canada Germany Finland Belgium Netherlands New Zealand Taiwan Czechia China Poland Norway Ireland South Korea Austria Spain Italy Hungary Serbia Denmark Slovakia Ukraine Isle of Man Croatia Bulgaria Romania Japan Russia Slovenia Portugal Türkiye Moldova Kazakhstan Switzerland Mexico Kyrgyzstan Iran Australia Jersey Chile Luxembourg Greece Uzbekistan United Arab Emirates Turkmenistan Guernsey Belarus Georgia North Macedonia Mongolia Réunion North Korea Bosnia & Herzegovina Latvia Lithuania Tajikistan Montenegro Azerbaijan Curaçao Hong Kong SAR China Mauritius Albania Cyprus Vietnam Andorra St. Pierre & Miquelon Myanmar (Burma) Kosovo Bahamas Cuba Afghanistan San Marino Estonia New Caledonia

Recorded as a rare visitor in Argentina, Morocco, Algeria, Bermuda, Guadeloupe, St. Barthélemy, Liechtenstein.

About the Common Pheasant

The common pheasant, ring-necked pheasant, or blue-headed pheasant, is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). The genus name comes from Latin phasianus 'pheasant'. The species name colchicus is Latin for 'of Colchis', a country on the Black Sea where pheasants became known to Europeans. Although Phasianus was previously thought to be closely related to the genus Gallus, the genus of junglefowl and domesticated chickens, recent studies show that they are in different subfamilies, having diverged over 20 million years ago.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Green Pheasant (Phasianus versicolor) Green PheasantPhasianus versicolorThe male (cock) southern green pheasant, P. v. versicolor, has dark green plumage on the breast, neck, mantle, and flanks.

Side by side: Common Pheasant vs Green Pheasant

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