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Our Pheasant

Hi!

For over a year we've had a pheasant coming to our garden, he is quite tame and will stay about a couple of yards away waiting for us to throw seed for him. He has even tapped on our glass back door with his beak looking in at us and then running across the paving to wait.

Two questions, "How long does a Pheasant live," we will be heartbroken when he goes, as he can sometimes stay in our garden for up to a couple of hours. Sometimes he will sit in our Greenhouse, so we just leave him in peace there.

The other question is at this time of year, we think he will probably be looking around for a mate, but yesterday he arrived and had a very bad limp. We wondered if it had been caused during a fight with another pheasant. He had a job getting around, but finally managed to fly on to our fence and down the other side. Do you think he will be alright? 

Ail

  • They ordinarily live until they're shot or get eaten by something other than man!  ;)  They're sort of more built for eating rather than flying and that means they're very easy prey.    So they're life span is on average just about a year and they're doing well if they last a couple of years.  To counteract that they lay a lot of eggs though!

    I've so many here that when I did my RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch submission, it asked me to check I'd put in the right number.   Yesterday when I was doing some gardening I found 18 pheasant eggs just randomly lying about the lawn.   Ordinarily there's about 40 to 60 pheasants wondering around our garden at any given time. 

    They are possibly the best means at removing moss from a lawn.   But you have to keep them moving or they'll strip it bare!  As you can see they've done beneath all my bird feeders

       

  • Hello,

    We have just one male pheasant, just like yours he's beautiful. I can understand how you must feel if the females are laying bare your grass, but we've never had any females, the male brought a couple of them in the winter, but they didn't stay. I'm quite happy to have the male, but wouldn't like any more. I'm surprised that they don't last any more than two years. That means ours hasn't long, as he has been with us since January 2012. We'll be upset when we don't see him around anymore, he has his habitat elsewhere.

    Regards

    Ail

  • Hi Ali

    Meet my pheasant Lancelot!!!

    Yes, I know it's daft giving him a name, but it sounds as though I'm in a similar situation to you - he started coming last April and has hardly missed a day since.  He spends ages amongst the  shrubs some days, just half an hour here or there other days, but wanders round into the front garden, taps on the patio windows (I think he is just eyeing up his own reflection rather than asking for food).  He sits on the shed roof and on the fence for ages at a time, and he is almost like a family pet now!!  At this time of year he is forever giving his territorial cry and fluttering his feathers.

    He usually has two females accompanying him, but at the moment there is just one - I've no idea whether the other one is nesting or what.  He doesn't do much pecking at the grass but t hen there is only one of him!

    Anyway, here's hoping our pheasants last a bit longer than normal, seeing as they are so well looked after.  It won't be the same not seeing him strutting his stuff round the garden!

  • What a handsome fellow he is Christine and that's a perfect name for him;   the two pheasants who usually come into the garden have been spending more of their time in the garden next door as the owner doesn't live their permanently and he has a very large garden;  I hear their claxon sound but not seen them in our garden for a few days.  

  • Lovely photos Northernlass, and they have certainly attacked your grass!

    Hazy, if I was you I'd keep your pheasant in next doors when there's no one at home hehe...

  • LOL Jason,   I can still hear the wake up call though -  even when it is next door !

  • No excuses to be late then hehe........

  • That bit isn't the lawn.   It's an area where there's soft fruit just in front of apple, pear and plum trees.  

    The pheasants follow me about as I do the feeders and they'll eat out of my hand.

    We have 8 males and 40' sh females in the garden every day.  The wood near us has massive rearing pens.  There's thousands there because we live in an area surrounded by 12,000 acres of managed shooting and hunting estate.

  • We have had a single cock pheasant coming to our garden for years, who has been named Freddie. I suspect from previous posts that this is not the same bird, but if he is, he's doing very well indeed!!  This year we actually have quite a harem for him in the garden at the moment, as our Jack Russell, Hilda, managed to put up a good dozen from our vegetable garden the other day!

  • That’s a strange answer. If they can fly they can survive. I’ve literally just watched a large male fly effortlessly into a tree and settle comfortably. They have no natural predators at that height.

    During the day they come down to ground level to feed and have no natural predators during the day as foxes are usually nocturnal. Our local family of foxes mainly comes out at night so they aren’t getting him thankfully.

    Pheasants are too big for most cats although it’s possible, however cats can’t fly making them a difficult catch. Personally I think most cats wouldn’t try unless bigger and more aggressive. Cats prefer voles and tiny mice.

    Pheasants are unfussy in their eating habits so that’s another bonus for longevity.

    It’s sad a small group of people take pleasure in killing them and I feel sorry for people who think death correlates with joy.

    But it’s wonderful seeing their rainbow of colours in our garden and long may it continue!