Ring-necked Pheasant (Common Pheasant)

This feather belongs to the Ring-necked Pheasant, a large ground-dwelling bird. Males are brilliantly colored with iridescent green heads and red face wattles, while females are a cryptic, mottled sandy brown. This feather displays the camouflaging earth tones typical of Galliformes.

Mottled brown, cream, and buff. Features dark transverse barring typical of female plumage or lower-body male plumage. The rachis is light and transitions into the dark pigmentation of the barbs.

A mix of pennaceous (interlocked) at the tip and plumulaceous (soft, loose) at the base. The barbs are relatively coarse compared to songbirds.

Relatively stiff and slightly glossy at the patterned tip, becoming very soft, silky, and matte at the gray downy base.

Distinctive mottled brown/buff transverse barring, significant downy base, and relatively stiff pennaceous tip characteristic of phasianids.

Agricultural fields, grasslands, brushy areas, and forest edges near water sources.

Native to Asia but widely introduced and naturalized across North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of New Zealand.

Omnivorous foragers that consume seeds, insects, and grain. They serve as a primary prey species for hawks, foxes, and coyotes.

Wild Turkey (tends to be larger and darker), Ruffed Grouse (barring is usually more irregular), or female Northern Pintail (feather shape is different).

Pheasants are surprisingly fast flyers, able to reach speeds of up to 48 mph when flushed, though they prefer to run or hide when threatened.

Fair to Good. There is some minor separation of the barbs (zipper effect loss) and slight curvature indicative of a naturally molted feather.