Common Pheasant

The common pheasant is a widespread and highly recognisable member of the family Phasianidae. Native to large parts of Asia and the extreme southeast of Europe, it is one of the world’s most widely introduced bird species, valued both as a gamebird and for its cultural associations. In regions where no related species occur, particularly in Europe where it is naturalised, it is often simply referred to as “the pheasant”. In North America it is commonly known as the ring-necked pheasant, a name applied collectively to several subspecies and hybrid forms that exhibit a white neck ring.

Taxonomy and Systematics

The species was scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 under its current binomial name Phasianus colchicus. The genus name Phasianus derives from Latin for “pheasant”, while the species epithet colchicus refers to Colchis, the ancient region on the Black Sea corresponding to modern-day western Georgia. Classical sources regarded the River Phasis as the origin of the pheasant, and the locality of this river was later fixed as the type locality for the species.
Historically, the genus Phasianus was thought to be closely aligned with the genus Gallus, which contains domestic chickens and junglefowl. Molecular evidence, however, places them in different subfamilies that diverged more than twenty million years ago. Of the species Linnaeus placed under Phasianus, only the common pheasant and the green pheasant (P. versicolor) of Japan remain in the genus today. The latter is sometimes treated as a subspecies of P. colchicus, but differences in ecology, plumage and behaviour, combined with partial but incomplete reproductive isolation, support its treatment as a distinct species.
The common pheasant has a highly complex taxonomy due to extensive subspecies variation and widespread hybridisation. Around 30 subspecies are generally recognised, classified into five to eight subspecies groups. Distinguishing characters include the presence or absence of a white neck ring, the colour of the crown and breast, the tones of the rump and wing coverts and the patterning of the upper tail feathers. Introduced populations often combine alleles of multiple subspecies, forming stable hybrid swarms.
Genetic analyses suggest that the species originated in the forests of southeastern China, with initial divergence estimated at around 3–4 million years ago. Later climatic shifts and range expansions across the Palaearctic contributed to the complex and sometimes inconsistent relationship between morphology-based subspecies boundaries and genetic structure.

Distribution and Introduction

The common pheasant occurs naturally across temperate Asia, including China, Korea, parts of Siberia, and the northern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. It is among the world’s most widely introduced birds, with long-established populations in Europe, the British Isles, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Introductions have generally been driven by game management, and many regions maintain populations through continual releases from game farms.
In North America, where it is strongly associated with agricultural and grassland landscapes, the species is widely referred to as the ring-necked pheasant. It is the state bird of South Dakota and is one of only two U.S. state birds that are non-native species.

Description

The species displays marked sexual dimorphism. Males are striking, with plumage that varies significantly among subspecies and captive-bred forms. Colour forms range from nearly white to deep melanistic black, reflecting both natural variation and the influence of hybridisation and selective breeding. The typical male of the nominate subspecies (P. c. colchicus) measures around medium–large pheasant size, with a total length often exceeding 70 cm, nearly half of which consists of the long, barred tail.
The plumage of males commonly features bright golden, copper-red or chestnut tones with iridescent greens and purples. The head is usually bottle-green, often with a small crest and prominent red wattles around the eyes. Some subspecies and many hybrid forms show a clear white ring around the neck, although the nominate form lacks this feature. Behind the face are short ear-tufts which give the species an alert appearance.
Females are much plainer, with mottled brown plumage that provides camouflage in grassland or woodland edge habitats. They are smaller than males and have shorter tails. Juveniles resemble females, with young males gradually developing adult plumage by about ten weeks after hatching.
The green pheasant of Japan is morphologically similar but shows uniformly darker and more bottle-green plumage in males, which also lack a neck ring. Females of the green pheasant are more heavily spotted and darker than female common pheasants. Hybridisation between the two species leads to overlapping plumage patterns in farmed birds.

Ecology and Behaviour

Common pheasants inhabit open or semi-open landscapes, including farmland, grasslands, woodland margins and scrub. They exploit a wide range of food resources, such as seeds, leaves, berries and invertebrates, and are well adapted to living near agriculture. Male pheasants are territorial during the breeding season, defending areas that attract harems of females. Courtship displays involve strutting, wing-flapping and calls designed to assert dominance.
Nesting occurs on the ground, usually concealed in vegetation. Females lay clutches that may contain eight to fourteen eggs, incubating them alone. The precocial chicks are able to follow the female soon after hatching and feed independently, though they remain under her guidance until fledging.
The species’ success as a gamebird is linked to its high reproductive capacity, adaptability to human-modified landscapes and tolerance of a wide range of climatic conditions. However, in regions where harsh winters occur, mortality can be high, particularly where artificial feeding is not practised.

Human Use and Cultural Significance

The common pheasant has been associated with humans for thousands of years and is one of the most ancient gamebirds of global importance. It appears frequently in classical and medieval literature, where it was valued as a delicacy and symbol of wealth. Linnaeus’s note principum mensis dicatur—“it is called the foremost dish of princes”—reflects this long-standing connection.
Modern management practices involve large-scale breeding and release for shooting, especially in Europe and North America. Birds reared on game farms are often semi-domesticated and show mixed ancestry from multiple subspecies, making them distinguishable from wild-form populations.

Subspecies Diversity

The approximately 30 recognised subspecies fall into several regional groups characterised largely by differences in male plumage. These include western and transcaucasian forms, Central Asian forms, East Asian ring-necked forms and groups from China and Southeast Asia. The delineation of these subspecies is complicated by hybridisation, both natural and human-facilitated, and by the long history of introductions across Eurasia.
Some taxonomic treatments divide the species into Central Asian “common pheasants” and East Asian “ring-necked pheasants”, separated historically by desert and mountain barriers. Pleistocene climate fluctuations likely reinforced isolation in the past, but present-day ranges overlap widely due to human introductions.

Biological and Genetic Notes

The species is notable for having held, until recently, the record for the smallest known genome among living amniotes, at approximately 970 million base pairs. This compact genome has contributed to its use in genetic and developmental research.
Hybridisation with the green pheasant occurs where ranges overlap, producing fertile offspring, a common phenomenon in galliform birds due to relatively weak postzygotic isolation. Despite hybrid viability, ecological differentiation allows the green pheasant to outcompete the common pheasant in typical Japanese habitats, limiting the success of introduced P. colchicus populations there.