This brightly coloured male ring-necked pheasant was spotted in Salmon Arm in spring, 2024.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Grant Cruikshank
September 23, 2024 - 6:00 AM
The bold colours of male ring-necked pheasants stand out among others in the grouse family where they live in tall grasses and weedy roadsides in Kamloops and the Okanagan.
While the females are dull in the colour the males sport copper and gold plumage, red faces and white bands around their necks.
Ring-necked pheasants were introduced to the United States in the 1880s to be game birds and can found in most of southern Canada including southern BC where it is legal to hunt them in some places.
The male pheasants are not just pleasant to look at, their rooster-like mating calls can be heard for over two kilometres away, and spring and summer mating displays include audible wing flapping, according to All About Birds.
Ring-necked pheasants practice something called harem-defense polygynym, where the male will keep and defend a small group of females to breed with.
A ring-necked pheasant stands on rocks in Salman Arm.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Tom Irish
The males will harass other species of ground nesting birds while the females will often lay their eggs in these nests, with the babies being raised by other species.
Ring-necked pheasants have a couple of unique defense mechanisms. They have powerful breast muscles that help them escape predators quickly where they can flush into the air quickly and reach speeds of over 60 km/h.
The birds can go into a dormant state for days at a time to survive extreme cold.
Despite their bright colours the birds can be difficult to spot in the tall grass however they can be seen foraging in more open areas on roadsides.
Winter is a great time to look for the pheasants when the vegetation is at a minimum and snowy backdrops help make them stand out.
Ring-necked pheasants can be found in the Shuswap, Kamloops and throughout the Okanagan Valley.
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This ring-necked pheasant was photographed in the Vernon area.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Jack VanDyk
This male ring-necked pheasant is eating from a feeder in Vernon.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Judi Folk
A male ring-necked pheasant in the Vernon area appears to look at the camera.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Donna and Cliff Pringle
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News from © iNFOnews, 2024