Ring-necked Pheasant (Common Pheasant)

The Ring-necked Pheasant is a large, ground-dwelling game bird known for the striking metallic plumage of the male, featuring an iridescent green head, white neck ring, and long, beautifully barred tail feathers. Females are a mottled, cryptic brown, providing excellent camouflage while nesting on the ground.

Muted greyish-brown at the fluffy base, transitioning to a rich, warm reddish-brown or chestnut tip with fine, dark barring visible under magnification

Mixed structure featuring a fluffy, plumulaceous base with loose, disconnected barbs, transitioning to a more orderly pennaceous tip with distinct, separated barb ends

Soft and downy at the basal half with a silky, matte texture at the colorful distal tip

Fluffy, down-like grey base shifting abruptly into a distinctive reddish-brown, comb-like or frayed terminal fringe with warm chestnut tones

Agricultural lands, open fields, brushy hedgerows, wetlands, and grassy woodlands

Native to Asia, but widely introduced and established across North America, Europe, and parts of New Zealand and Australia as a game bird

Serves as an important prey species for mammalian and avian predators, and acts as an omnivorous seed disperser and insect consumer in agricultural ecosystems

Other upland game birds such as Gray Partridge or Greater Prairie-Chicken, though the specific reddish chestnut tip and fluffy grey base help separate pheasant body feathers

Ring-necked Pheasants are strong runners and prefer to run from danger rather than fly, though they can burst into powerful, rapid, short-distance flights when startled

Good condition; barbs are mostly intact though slightly disheveled at the base, showing typical wear for a body covert feather