Tag Archive | ring-necked pheasant

Game Birds Taking Refuge in Our City

By Cathy Warwick

Where is one place a bird bred for the sport of hunting can be and not get shot at? In the city of course! Yes there are lots of other dangers, namely cars, but there are less predators and less people in camouflage fatigues lurking behind trees ready to shoot. It’s positively a paradise for game birds! In Calgary there are a couple populations of game birds hiding out that you might be lucky enough to see. These are the Gray Partridge and the Ring-necked Pheasant. (Another local game bird, the Ruffed Grouse, is usually only found in small numbers in the conifer forests on the west edge of the city, and is pretty hard to find.)

While walking in our southwest neighbourhood I saw a small group of Gray Partridge for the very first time in my life. They were small plump chicken-like birds with a cinnamon patch on the face. These little round birds were running along the ground very fast, they were moving as a group with no apparent leader. They seemed to spook at the sight of us and hustled along a chain link fence. The problem was half were on the inside of the fence and half were on the outside. They ran most of the length of the fence before they noticed what had happened. The whole group then stopped and cheeped for a while in confusion. I’m not sure they are the sharpest knives in the drawer but they sure are cute. In the half-light we saw some of them fly up over the fence, which seems to be a last resort for them. 

Gray Partridge
Gray Partridge. Photo by Diane Stinson.

The Gray Partridge was introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1900s. It is mostly found on farmland, especially in the Northern Prairies where it somehow survives the cold winter. The hens will lay a lot of eggs, more than most birds. Up to 22 in a clutch! These birds also have very short life spans, only averaging 1.8 years. 

Gray Partridge
Gray Partridge near the irrigation canal below the Max Bell arena, May 1, 2023. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

I was biking along the Bow River bike path to Fish Creek Park and saw a Ring-necked Pheasant wandering around the back yards bordering the path. What a show stopper that rooster is! I screeched to a halt and looked at its bright red face, beautiful iridescent blue head and very long tail. Also the white ring around its neck of course. The female (hen) is a more camouflage brown and is smaller than the rooster. The roosters are very striking and colourful, the allaboutbirds.org website even calls them ‘gaudy’. That may be a backhanded way of saying they don’t really belong in our landscape. You can get an inkling of that just by looking at them, North American species are usually a bit more subdued in colour. The Ring-necked sure aren’t camouflaged with that attire! 

In fact their populations are supplemented heavily by the Alberta Conservation Association which runs a “Provincial Pheasant Release Program”. I hear they released melanistic Ring-necked pheasants this year, which have an all black body. Still not great for hiding from coyotes during the winter. It’s actually the hens that have a much harder time during the winter, they do all the work with the eggs and the chicks. Thus they spend a lot less time fattening up for winter. Lucky for them that hunters are encouraged to shoot the males.

Ring-necked Pheasant
A Ring-necked pheasant strutting its stuff.
Photo by Diane Stinson.

Keep your eyes out for these game birds sheltering in our city and when you see one take a moment to appreciate all that it has to survive – hunters, traffic and worst of all, winter. 

Ring-necked Pheasant
A Ring-necked Pheasant showing its beautiful tail.
Photo by Diane Stinson.

Learn more about Gray Partridge and Ring-necked Pheasants on eBird.

Birds of Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

For the week of April 10-16, the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park birding course groups explored the Burnsmead area of Fish Creek Park, along the river just east of the park headquarters, near the wastewater treatment plant. There are some ponds in this area, as well as a wooded area and the river itself.

Max Ortiz Aguilar went with the group on April 16 and got these photos of some of the birds there.

Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Burnsmead, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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 Canada Goose, possibly guarding a nest site, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Common Mergansers (female in front, male behind), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Franklin’s Gull, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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This photo and the next shows the pinkish hue these birds have when they arrive here from their wintering grounds off the coast of Venezuela, where they feed on shrimp that contain red pigments. The colour often fades by fall.

Franklin’s Gulls, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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House Finch (male), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Red-winged Blackbird (male), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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To see more of Max’s photos, visit his website here.

Pheasants, Grouse, and Partridges of Calgary

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Here are a few of the Gallinaceous or game birds of Calgary and area. There are three species that are regularly seen within the city limits, two of them introduced: Ruffed Grouse, Ring-necked Pheasant, and Gray Partridge. Ring-necked pheasants were introduced from east Asia. They are well-established in the wild in North America, but more are raised and released in Alberta every year as game birds. Gray Partridge are native to Europe and are also well-established here. Ruffed Grouse are the only native game bird that you can regularly find in Calgary.

Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Fish Creek Park, March 4, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Fish Creek Park, October 18, 2015. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Fish Creek Park, February 20, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Listen for the harsh, usually two-note crowing of the males in Fish Creek Park, especially along the river.

Ring-necked Pheasant (female), Fish Creek Park, February 20, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Ring-necked Pheasants (female), Fish Creek Park, February 20, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Ruffed Grouse, Turner Valley area, January 8, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

In Calgary, Ruffed Grouse can be found in the boreal forest where it creeps into the west end of the city. The Weaselhead is probably the most reliable location. In the spring, listen for the drumming of the males.

Ruffed Grouse, Weaselhead Nature Area, February 22, 2017. Photo by David Mitchell.

Gray Partridge, Calgary, February 19, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Gray Partridge, Calgary, February 19, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Gray Partridge are usually found near open grassy fields, and are often seen in residential areas. In the spring you may see pairs but since they have large broods, by summer they are often in family groups of up to 20 birds.

Sharp-tailed Grouse, south of Calgary, April 2016. Photo by Dan Arndt.

Sharp-tailed Grouse are almost never seen in the city (or even near it) any more, although they historically had a breeding ground (lek) on Nose Hill and used to be seen regularly there. You can still find them on the prairies, especially south and southeast of town. (See this post for more of Dan’s photos from a lek.)

Chukar, West Springs, SW Calgary, July 2012. Photo by Tom Amerongen.

I should also mention the Chukar, another introduced Eurasian game bird that is established in some parts of western North America. It has never established successful breeding populations in the Calgary area. Nevertheless, people do see them in town almost every year. They can be bought to be raised privately and apparently are often used to train hunting dogs, and inevitably some escape into the wild. In the last two years there have been sightings from Egerts Park in the NW, Radisson Heights and Dover in the SE, and Strathcona in the SW. If you see one of these birds, send us an email. I’ve never seen one, and would like to, even though as an escaped captive bird it doesn’t count on my eBird list.

If you venture out of town you can also see Spruce Grouse and Dusky Grouse in the foothills, and White-tailed Ptarmigan in the mountains. Wild Turkeys can be found SW of town, in the Millarville area.

Wild Turkey, Millarville area, January 9, 2015. Photo by Dan Arndt.

Bird Profile: Ring-necked Pheasant

 

The male Ring-necked Pheasant is a very colourful bird with a loud, harsh and raucous “koork-KOK”, call; one that often emerges from grasslands, deep brush and agricultural land. The pheasant is native to Caucasus and Russia and has been introduced all over the world as a popular game bird.

Ring-necked Pheasant

 There is usually one male who guards his harem of plain, mottled females from other males, chasing them away during the breeding season. Pheasants are known to hunker down in a roost in very bad weather, going for days without eating. They nest and forage on the ground, eating seeds, wild fruits, nuts and insects.

 I had my own special encounter with a pheasant the other day. I rode my bike to Fish Creek and as I turned a corner, I came to within a couple meters of a pheasant. He was startled (so was I!) and in his haste to get away, slipped on ice! Definitely funny for me to see!

Elegance… This male Pheasant is trying to be as regal as possible. 

He hits the ice as he runs away and is unprepared…

Whoa!!! He definitely wasn’t ready for this!

Dignity regained… Or so he thinks. 

Posted by Matthew Sim

Never a Dull Moment: Mallard Point

On Saturday, upon finally having good weather after a long winter, the Friends of Fish Creek Park group went to Mallard Point to see what could be found on the river.  There were seventeen people on the outing, which meant lots of pairs of eyes on the lookout for birds.  We saw many of the usual species, but even so, one never tires of the quirks of bird behavior.

Black-capped Chickadee excavating a nest hole…

… and emerging with a beak full of sawdust.

Male Common Goldeneye declaring his love…

…and then a pair of Goldeneyes demonstrating how diving ducks have to run on takeoff.

Male Ring-necked Pheasant chasing the female all over the island.

And for some reason it always seems odd to see Canada Geese up in the trees:

 

They can’t be thinking of nesting on the picnic table, can they?

We were also lucky enough to see some returning migrants:

Franklin’s Gulls.  The one on the right has a pinkish breast colour.

But the highlight was a rare bird sighting, a male Red-breasted Merganser.  These are only seen in southern Alberta on migration, and not very frequently within the city.  This was a life bird for about ten of us, and even Gus Yaki, the trip leader, said he had not seen one in Calgary for about five years.

 

 

Posted by Bob Lefebvre