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Pheasants
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Length & Weight
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Adult length: Males average 20
inches (51 cm); females average 16 inches (41 cm); Woodland
Park Zoo male: 21 ounces (594 g); Woodland Park Zoo
female: 18 ounces (503 g). Wild Palawan peacock pheasants
may weigh less.
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Life Span: Life span in the wild
is unknown; up to 15 years in zoos.
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Diet: In the wild: Seeds, grains,
nuts, fruit, leaves, roots, insects, worms and slugs.
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Ringneck pheasants bring to mind the hearty cackle of a flushed
rooster in the fall, but pheasants may also be raised in a domestic
environment. In fact, because the pheasant spends the greater part
of its life on the ground, it readily adapts to life in confinement.
The ringneck pheasant is not native to this continent. It was first
introduced from China to the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1881.
Since that time nearly all states have attempted to establish ringnecks.
Pheasants were stocked in North Dakota in 1910. Private citizens,
with help from the Game and Fish Department, continued stocking
efforts until pheasants were well established in southeastern North
Dakota. Wild pheasant populations are subject to extreme fluctuation
due primarily to the fluctuating availability of suitable cover
and the fluctuating severity of winter weather. North Dakota's first
pheasant hunting season was in 1931. Pheasant season closed because
of the lack of birds only in 1953, 1966 and 1969.
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| Bird rescue & bird adoption;
parrot refuge/rescue & placement for unwanted birds. |
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| Check out our list of local
birds broken down by your state and different types of
species. |
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| Migrating birds stay on track
because of chemical reactions in their bodies that are
influenced by the Earth's magnetic field... |
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Part
I
November
19, 2004