PHEASANTS

Left-right: Ring-Necked Pheasant, Silver Pheasant, Lady Amherst Pheasant,
Melanistic Pheasant, Red Pheasant and Green Pheasant.

The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native to Asia but has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as "the pheasant". It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The Common Pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds[1], has it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially farmed for this purpose. "Ring-necked Pheasant" is a collective name for a number of subspecies and their crossbreeds.
The Silver Pheasant, Lophura nycthemera is a large, approximately 125cm long, white pheasant with bare red facial skin, red legs and glossy black below. The male is adorned with white, long, patterned tail and black dropping crest on its crown. At least two years is needed to attain full male plumage. The female is an olive brown with black-tipped crest.
The Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Chrysolophus amherstiae is a gamebird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. These are native to south western China and Myanmar, but have been introduced elsewhere, and have established a self-supporting, but now declining, feral population in England the stronghold of which is now in Bedfordshire. The adult male is 100-120 cm in length, its tail accounting for 80 cm of the total length. It is unmistakable with its black and silver head, long grey tail and rump, and red, blue, white and yellow body plumage. The "cape" can be raised in display. This species is closely related to the Golden Pheasant and the introduced populations in England will interbreed. The female is much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over, similar to that of the female Common Pheasant but with finer barring. She is very like the female Golden Pheasant, but has a darker head and cleaner underparts than the hen of that species.
The Green Pheasant (P. versicolor) is very similar, and hybridizaton makes individual birds' identities often difficult to determine. Green Pheasant males are shorter-tailed on average and have a darker plumage that is uniformly bottle-green on the breast and belly; they always lack a neck ring. Their females are darker, with many black dots on the breast and belly. In addition, various color mutations are commonly encoutered, mainly melanistic (black) and flavistic (isabelline or fawn) specimens. The former are rather common in some areas and are named Tenebrosus Pheasant (P. colchicus var. tenebrosus).