A black pheasant?

bobbysands81

Walking down a country lane in rural Kilkenny last week and heard a rustling in bushes and over them flew what looked like a pheasant but it looked completely black. The pheasant flew by me within ten feet and was a completely different colour to any of the hundreds of male and female pheasants I've seen over the last number of years.

Is there such a thing as black pheasants?

secman

Can't wait to hear Gerry Adams tweet on this one ......:)

Mickeroo

It could have been a melanistic pheasant, it's much the same as when you get a black sheep.

Bsal

Could it have been a Black Grouse? I'm not even sure if we have Black Grouse in Ireland.

dodderangler

Look up melanistic pheasants.gun clubs do release them for the lucky Hunter.seen some before and stuffed. There's also white pheasants about aswell. Again these are released by gun clubs

Kamili

I've heard them called blue black pheasants, they still have the red over their eyes so not a true melanistic pheasant. They have iridescent feathers so are not actually black, in good light you'll catch a glint of blue or green.
They are officially called Tenebrosus Pheasants.

They are a throw back to an oriental version that was imported in the 19th century I think. They are supposedly hardier than the common pheasant.

I've seen a few of them myself, beautiful birds.

some photos not taken by me here:

http://www.gobirding.eu/Photos/Pheasant.php