Melanistic pheasant

[HFW]

This years provincial release program has a number of Melanistic pheasants being released at various sites across the province. While we have had a very successful pheasant season we had not encountered one in the field. I had seen a few harvested ones and had hoped to come across one. Yesterday was the day everything came together. Very impressive bird for coloring, size, flight and wariness. Birds I have seen range in size from slightly smaller than a "normal rooster" to very large (about 1 1/2 times the size of the roosters we see). This one is definitely on the larger size. Very nice to get this on what could be our last outing as we have gotten plastered with snow today. I was able to gift the feathers / cape to three fly tiers so in addition to a couple of great meals this bird will continue to contribute to the outdoors through the passion of a few fly fishermen.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Very cool. Never really heard of one before. Thanks for sharing.

 

[HFW]

Here is another picture with a little better shot on the coloring and size. All of the melanistic birds I have seen have very weak tails. However the feathering just above the tail is very impressive. For a large upland bird they do break out of cover quick and are fast. They also like to run and this one Finn tracked to a point where it ran out of cover.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Which province are you located? I often wonder why Canada doesn't try introducing caparcale grouse. They are found in boreal forests of Europe with moose, lynx, wolves, etc. Can't see why they wouldn't take over here. Imagine what a magnet for hunter tourism a fifteen pound grouse species would be. American upland aficionados would flock across the border.

 

[HFW]

Which province are you located? I often wonder why Canada doesn't try introducing caparcale grouse. They are found in boreal forests of Europe with moose, lynx, wolves, etc. Can't see why they wouldn't take over here. Imagine what a magnet for hunter tourism a fifteen pound grouse species would be. American upland aficionados would flock across the border.

I am in Alberta and this is the first year for the add of melanistic birds to the releases. I think the numbers were 1500 out of the 20,000 + released over 42 different locations. Pheasants in Alberta do not have much of a change on survivability through the winters, unless they are in the very south and there predators take a significant toll. Same problem for grey partridge and sharptails on the predation. Interesting on the Caparcale Grouse -- I wonder what the down side would be to native grouse if anything.

 

[406LIFE]

They're cool looking birds.
A local pheasant club used to release one as the money bird during big hunts. Everyone put in for the pot and whoever shot the black bird got it. FWP had them stop several years back.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I am in Alberta and this is the first year for the add of melanistic birds to the releases. I think the numbers were 1500 out of the 20,000 + released over 42 different locations. Pheasants in Alberta do not have much of a change on survivability through the winters, unless they are in the very south and there predators take a significant toll. Same problem for grey partridge and sharptails on the predation. Interesting on the Caparcale Grouse -- I wonder what the down side would be to native grouse if anything.

European Capercale coexist with red grouse and black grouse. I can't see why they wouldn't get along with ruff and spruce grouse. In fact, I'll have to check but I think they have spruce grouse over there. Black grouse would be a cool one to add too. They have long lyre shaped tail feathers you see stuffed in the hats of German boar hunters. Capercale are very wary birds and too big for many birds of prey to handle. I think they would do very well. They just need the habitat and we certainly have lots of boreal forest. For now anyway.