We have wild pheasants who come into the garden to be fed, today while watching them from the window, there was a Black one! Never saw one before, he was stunning, where would he have come from??
Anybody have Black pheasants?

Never seen a black one before but here's a link for you  http://www.pheasant.com/page.aspx?page_id=68

We have black, white and really deep emerald green ones round here.  "apparantly" when out on a shoot you get charged more for shooting one of the different coloured ones .... not sure how true that is though.

on the shoots that I work my dogs on their is a 'bounty ' on the white pheasants if killed.  wobetide anyone that kills one! the dark birds are called melanistic, and are beautiful, the males are stunning and hens very pretty too.

Years ago I was on a shoot and heard this gun call out, 'did anyone see my Melanistic cock'?  said of course in a rather posh voice! it caused us lesses souls to have a great laugh.

Big fine for shooting the white phessies where we shoot  and someone usually ends up out of pocket each year ..LOL

K

We have the black and the emerald ones round our village. 
Just out of interest, how much do you get charged for bagging a white pheasant on a shoot?

Think its £100.00 on our shoot this year.

K

so why is there a fine, because its rare or because being white its not difficult to miss !!!

all the guns know that its bad luck to shoot the white pheasants.  They should aim and see what they are shooting. not just shoot because they see a 'bird'. the white pheasants are there all year unlike the white hare/fos etc. 

oh so they arent supposed to shoot the white ones ?

> Years ago I was on a shoot and heard this gun call out, 'did anyone see my Melanistic cock'?  said of course in a rather posh voice! it caused us lesses souls to have a great laugh.

My husband came home from a shoot he was at yesterday (first time beating for our cocker, and first time hubby had worked a dog, so very exciting for both of them), and I observed with some suprise that he had two cocks (he usually gets given a hen and a cock). 

>They should aim and see what they are shooting. not just shoot because they see a 'bird'.

Exactly. As far as I know the majority of shoots have a 'white bird' ban.

That's the great thing about this forum, you learn so much that you would not otherwise know. Thanks, it's very interesting. I shall impart my new found knowledge to hubby over a glass of wine later, he'll probably say he already knew!!!

35 years ago, when my OH was a member of a rough shoot, and one drive would be very near to our house.    There was always a melanistic pheasant that would get up - be left alone - and would always appear to fly over to our house.

Eventually it became known as "Adrian's pheasant" and the joke was that it would roost in our oven ....plucking out another feather on its way in every day :)

When we moved, eighteen months ago there was always a melanistic pheasant with his hens (who always looked to be Mrs Brownes) who would march through our garden, into the veg patch, every day during the winter - would hear him in the spring but very rarely see him again until autumn/winter ....I wouldn't imagine it was the same old bird - but he obviously kept his genes close by!

we dont have a white bird ban, but there is a £50 penalty if one is shot. Black cocks are actually melanistic and on close inspection are actually very dark green. most shoots put down a small proportion of melanistics for added variety