Black Pheasant

[lockman]

Driving my daughter to work this morning we spotted a compleatly black pheasant on the side of the road, is this a differant breed or a freak of nature ?

[zaskar]

Strangely, I saw a completely white pheasant cross the road in front of me early this morning...

[Cetti]

What you may have seen is a  breed called the Black Melanistic as opposed to the more familiar White Ring Pheasant. This breed originated in Europe about 100 years ago.

Pheasant's plumage can vary tremendously depending of the origin of the introduced stock.

[FP]

A colleague of mine had a black pheasant that lived in his garden for years.  The other pheasant's seemed to shun this poor bird.

[Janech]

The Melanistic Pheasant is bred quite widely in France, I believe, and is popular on shoots because it flies better than the common or garden pheasant.  Come to Devon and you will see plenty of black pheasants.

[lockman]

Thanks for all your answers

[Noodster]

I live in North Essex and my husband and I have seen a black pheasant twice now.  The last time was in my garden about 2 hours ago - completely black (almost blue/black) with red around the neck.  It flew like a pheasant and squawked like a pheasant as it flew off, once I'd disturbed it!!