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Pure black pheasant


Lewisj
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So I was shooting on some maize this weekend (as they cut it) and a pure black pheasant flew out and landed a few feet from me. I have never seen a pure black pheasant and a game keeper friend didn't believe me that it existed! He thought it was a chicken .... Which it wasn't.

 

What are these birds called and are they rare? It was genuinely pure black like a crow.

 

Cheers guys!

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On my permission there has been an increase in black pheasant for a couple of years bit of a puzzle really as none of the local shoots say they release any, got to the stage where the farmer has asked me to knock them back a bit, did it last season what a bit of fun, four birds come up and maybe only one would be black, so you have to pick your bird carefully, the hens are a very deep chestnut colour, the cocks range from a deep dark chestnut brown to raven black, one shoot had four albino birds that would be allowed to pass over the guns.

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Lots round me last two years, many times I have put the scope onto them thinking they were crows in the half light of dawn (never shot one) the dog pegged one under the blackthorn in the garden though last winter and it tasted just like the regular colour ones I can attest :yes:

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Good old Kent, the taste test haha :-).

 

I took a few minutes to think about it before eating a silkie chicken once... the black skin really was offputting.

 

Was the skin of the pheasant pigmented too or just the feather?

Cant say I noticed, the fat was still yellow

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I released 50 of them maybe 5 years ago, they wander further than a camel in the desert looking for water. Undersides of their feet are yellow !!.

 

Over two years we shot about 25%, in the air its very hard to tell them from a standard cock. I shot a couple then found when I went the dog brought them back they were black.

 

A

Edited by Alycidon
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I picked up a few black poults last year from the game dealer and they made very handsome birds.

 

Here's one I had the pleasure of dropping later in the season. Yeah I know he should have a longer tail and better spurs, but the birds weren't really old enough when we got them last year. This years have got super tails already and look much fitter, but it's from a different supplier.

 

20131210_220044.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our game farmer calls them Obscures, a variant of melanistic that originated on the French game farms/ egg producers. Much darker and even coloured than the classic melanistic. Almost crow black with a tinge of purple. A very impressive bird. We reared a hundred from day olds and they did well. Did not think they wandered anymore than the traditional game pheasants, quite large bodied so maybe not the bird if you have flat land yet look for high birds.

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  • 6 years later...

You know, I actually have an all black pheasant in my garden right now! I would attach a photo, but i don't know how.

On 30/09/2014 at 14:30, Lewisj said:

So I was shooting on some maize this weekend (as they cut it) and a pure black pheasant flew out and landed a few feet from me. I have never seen a pure black pheasant and a game keeper friend didn't believe me that it existed! He thought it was a chicken .... Which it wasn't.

 

What are these birds called and are they rare? It was genuinely pure black like a crow.

 

Cheers guys!

 

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