Pheasant or grouse?

dogmatix

I have been doing a lot of walking in the Glenmalure - Glendalough - Trooperstown area recently and have noticed a lot of pheasant like birds walking about - the males have a distinctive red patch on their heads and the hens are rather dull coloured. Are they Pheasants or grouse? I have never noticed them in my normal stamping ground in north wicklow - are they confined to this part of wicklow or is this something unusual this year?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/bwi/pages092003/consvwork/surveys/redgrouse.html

There are some Grouse in Wicklow. This link may clarify.

Alun

There are grouse in Wicklow as Srameen said, although you rarely see any great numbers of them in one place. Plenty of pheasant about in the Troopersoiwn area, although they tend to stick to lower ground .. you won't find them up very high or in the open.

Pheasant, especially the males, have the characteristic long tail feathers, so I don't think they'd be too hard to distinguish from the grouse.

r3nu4l

Which one of these birds was it? That's your answer

dogmatix

Aye - thanks for that. Defo Pheasant they are. Very attractive birds - I saw about three birds yesterday near trooperstown (not including the roadkill). they must be very common in that part of wicklow because I have never seen them anywhere else and i've been hill walking for years.

Always nice to see a bit of wildlife on a long hike, whether it be birds, deer, orienterors etc.

fits

Those pheasants aren't as wild as you might think. Most of them are bred in captivity and released into the wild and fed for a time in Autumn. They capture the adults again in springtime after the end of the hunting season for breeding purposes.
Lots of 'game estates' in the area. Game shooting is quite a lucrative business.
Pheasants arent too good at breeding successfully in the wild, so numbers would be insufficient for the sport, if they were left to their own devices.
And yes they are all eaten after being shot.

boneless

I remember seeing red grouse up near the Sally Gap last autumn. I hope the recent gorse fires did not do too much damage to their numbers.

Roen

Don't think I ever came across a Grouse, the pheasants down here though nearly hop into your car, they're that tame.

dogmatix

And they make surprisingly colourful roadkill too - think Pollack and tarmac.