Tell me: what do you see?

[venta]

Can any ornithologically-inclined person tell me what I saw yesterday?

This was in Kew gardens. They have parakeets (which roam around freely in the wild in West London) and peacocks (which do not), as well as the usual array of ducks, geese and swans. They don't really specialise in fancy birds, but I concede it might be a specimen they've brought in rather than something that just hopped over the fence. I didn't see it fly, or even attempt it, but it ran pretty quickly.

Our best answers thus far are "graffiti-art peacock" and "souped-up pheasant".

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I don't, but I've emailed it to my dad.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

A very full answer from him (I appreciate you've already been told, but thought you might like this):

"A very nice picture of the Golden Pheasant. Like the ordinary pheasant it is not a native of the UK, but was introduced here from Asia (in this case China) and has been able to survive and breed in the wild. Our PBI excursions to Norfolk and Suffolk often encountered golden pheasants in the fields; mostly in the Breckland area. We occasionally saw another Chinese species - the Silver Pheasant - that had also established in the Breck during the last 100 years, although not in large numbers. The male silver pheasant is mostly white on top, but black underneath - very striking. There were rumours of a third ornamental pheasant - Lady Amherst's Pheasant - breeding in the wild in East Anglia, but nobody at PBI had seen one. All three species have been kept on large estates and in zoos and public gardens, and pictures of them are abundant online.

The ordinary, or ring-necked pheasant was originally brought here by the Romans (probably as food) but would have been protected by landowners from the start. We had native game birds; the grey partridge, the red grouse and the black grouse, the great bustard and the capercaillie. Of these, the brits exterminated the bustard, have probably wiped out the capercaillie, and are well on the way to losing the grey partridge. Hunters did introduce the red-legged (French) partridge for sport a century or so ago, but later regretted this when they found that, when disturbed by the beaters, the Frenchies would not fly, but ran frantically in all directions - totally disturbing all other game in the process, and thus spoiling the "sport". (Serves them right.) The red grouse is protected by landowners, so that they can charge hunters for the day's sport, and large numbers of the birds are raised to be shot, but mostly not eaten. (They get ploughed-in somewhere.) The protection costs us large numbers of potential predators, and England appears to have lost the Hen Harrier (a rare hawk) as a breeding species in the last few years. This was not helped by someone on the Sandringham Royal Estate in Norfolk a couple of years ago, who shot two hen harriers that were being watched through binoculars by a large number of birdwatchers outside the estate. There were only three people with guns on the estate at the time: Prince Harry and one of his school friends, and the estate gamekeeper. We have never been informed which idiot(s) allowed this to happen.

Oh well. At least there are active efforts going on in the west country to re-introduce the Great Bustard.

I do like the pheasant picture. Thanks for sending it."

one of Kew's ornamentals

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

It's a rather fine Golden Pheasant. They're an exotic - but probably home-grown rather imported as these have been strutting around stately homes for years. A classic fancy garden bird. They can fly, but they're often wing-clipped (half the flight feathers taken off one wing) to discourage them from going far.

I hope they have some females for it, because the display is great -- that neck shawl is pushed forward and it's very ehhh I'll just show you

[lnr]

I guessed someone would have got there first! Beautiful birds.

Re: one of Kew's ornamentals

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

He inflates his bum and all! That's a come on I've never seen before. Not in the clubs I go to anyway.

Re: one of Kew's ornamentals

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

If you think he's special, check out Lady Amherst's Pheasant. Oooooooh!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

There appears to be plenty of actual information above, but I seem to recall I submitted a photo of exactly this bird to your first ever photo contest... erm... almost 10 years ago?

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous Golden Pheasant !

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

There was a couple of them that used to come into our wood when we lived in Northumberland. For some reason they completely flummoxed the retrievers including the including the usually omnicidal one. Fortunately they were after the time of the Jack Russell...
My Mam used to find the tail feathers and stick them up haphazardly as makeshift Christmas ornaments to take patients' attention away from the muddy paw prints on the carpets.