Ring-necked Pheasant (Common Pheasant)

The Ring-necked Pheasant is a large, ground-dwelling gamebird famous for the male's brilliant iridescent plumage, red facial wattles, and very long, tapering tail. Females are a mottled sandy-brown for camouflage. Though they are strong flyers for short distances, they prefer to run on the ground to escape danger.

Warm golden-brown and cream tones, translucent under strong sunlight, lacking the complex barred patterns of tail feathers, featuring a pale cream to white leading edge and shaft base

Pennaceous vane with tightly interlocked barbs and barbicels, firm and intact structure

Smooth, firm, and matte texture with rigid vane structure designed for aerodynamic flight support

Sturdy, pale-shafted flight feather with uniform golden-buff coloration and strong pennaceous structure characteristic of large gallinaceous birds

Agricultural fields, brushy hedgerows, open woodlands, grasslands, and marshes

Native to Asia, widely introduced and naturalized across North America and Europe

Acts as both a ground-foraging seed/insect consumer and an important prey species for various mammalian and avian predators in agricultural and grassland ecosystems

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) or Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), though distinguished by smaller size and lighter, more uniform golden-buff tones

Ring-necked Pheasants are not native to North America; they were successfully introduced from Asia for sport hunting in the late 19th century. Males possess sharp leg spurs used during territorial combat.

Good condition, clean vane with minimal wear and intact barbs, showing nice translucency under direct light