Phasianus colchicus
An unmistakable, long-tailed game bird, common in parks and woodland edges.
Size: 53-89 cm (male, including tail) | Habitat: Park & Woodland-Edge Birds | Season: All year
Introduced to Britain centuries ago, the male pheasant is spectacular, with a glossy, iridescent green-black head, red face wattles, and a long, barred tail. Females are mottled brown and far less conspicuous.
Male: iridescent green-black head, red face wattles, chestnut body, long barred tail · Female: mottled brown, shorter tail · both: heavy-bodied, short rounded wings
Pheasants forage on the ground for seeds, shoots, and invertebrates, usually singly or in small groups, and explode into noisy, whirring flight when startled rather than flying far.
Around 40-60 million pheasants are released into the British countryside every summer for shooting — meaning the UK briefly holds roughly half of the entire world's pheasant population each autumn.
The Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is one of the most visually spectacular birds in this journal, the male sporting a glossy, iridescent green-black head, bright red face wattles, and a long, elegantly barred tail; females are far plainer, mottled brown for camouflage while nesting on the ground.
Originally native to Asia and introduced to Britain many centuries ago for sport, pheasants are released in huge numbers, tens of millions annually, for shooting each autumn, making them one of the most numerous birds in the British countryside for part of the year despite being entirely non-native. They forage on the ground for seeds, shoots, and invertebrates, and are famous for their explosive, clattering take-off when startled.
Understanding the pheasant's true status, an introduced game bird released annually on a huge scale rather than a naturally established wild population, is genuinely useful context for a species so visually iconic in the British countryside.
⚪ Conservation status: Not formally assessed (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
As a non-native species introduced for sport shooting, with tens of millions released annually, the pheasant falls outside the scope of the UK's conservation status assessments, which focus on naturally occurring wild bird populations.