Cycling Naturalist
Guru
- Location
- Llangollen
There are seven pheasants in the back garden as I type - but all of them are hen pheasants. There can be up to nine pheasants, but cock birds are extremely rare. Can anyone explain this?
Cock birds are much less useful to breeders because they don't lay eggs and so can't contribute much to the increase of the flock - perhaps like male chickens they're more likely to be killed very young to maximise the size of the next generation.There are seven pheasants in the back garden as I type - but all of them are hen pheasants. There can be up to nine pheasants, but cock birds are extremely rare. Can anyone explain this?
Are you sure they are all hens and not mixed juveniles?
The shooting season is 1 October to 1 February. Birds retain their juvenile plumage up to about 10 weeks (according to wiki). So it sound like Patrick's birds are probably juveniles released probably in January that have managed to evade the shooters. They can't be shot now so they may breed, get eaten by a sparrowhawk or Patrick may catch them all in a big net and make some delightful dish from themAm i? I don't know at what age they get adult plumage. Will last year's chicks be breading this year or later?
The shooting season is 1 October to 1 February. Birds retain their juvenile plumage up to about 10 weeks (according to wiki). So it sound like Patrick's birds are probably juveniles released probably in January that have managed to evade the shooters. They can't be shot now so they may breed, get eaten by a sparrowhawk or Patrick may catch them all in a big net and make some delightful dish from them
What's for supper, Patrick?
They are rather out of a sparrowhawk's range. Even the females have to decapitate a collared dove, in order to fly away with it. And, ahem, for juveniles "released probably in January" what is the breeding cycle - incubation in October?