How a pheasant winters...
Features of the pheasant
These birds are distinguished by their longevity. In the wild, their average lifespan is about 5-7 years, under favorable circumstances - up to 13-15 years. But at home, they can live for 18 years, but only with good care.
Male pheasants are distinguished by interesting behavior, quite complex for birds. At first, the male remains alone, walks with his tail raised, makes a loud cry, which can be described as "ke-ke-re" or "ke-ke", and then it is replaced by a quieter and even gentle sound "goo-goo-goo", which is repeated many times until the female joins the gentleman.
In pheasants, males and females differ in appearance. Firstly, males are larger. Their length is 80-90 cm. Secondly, they can be distinguished by the spurs on their legs, a long and rather lush tail (42-54 cm long) and bright coloring, which includes golden, orange, purple and dark green shades.
Females look more modest. Their body length is about 60 cm, and their tail is 29-31 cm on average. They also have a brownish-yellow plumage. But the periorbital area of both males and females is red.
Male and female pheasants molt at different times. Representatives of the stronger sex - at a time when the females are busy incubating eggs. But the females (they do not have a special name, most often they are called hens) molt when the chicks grow up and reach 2/3 of the usual size of an adult bird. In the wild, males and females split into separate flocks in the fall. Moreover, males have large flocks, up to a hundred individuals, and females have small flocks, up to ten hens. In the poultry yard, they are divided into families starting in February and for the entire warm season, up to September, adding 3-4 females to one male. Pheasants are truly unique birds that deserve special attention from lovers of nature or tasty meat.