Pheasant ID help

[drowe005]

At Thanksgiving today, my aunt was telling me about this mounted pheasant she had, that her uncle shot while living in Germany and then brought it over here when he moved over. When she got home, she sent me a picture and I was going to tell her what it was, but was unsure; I had a couple ideas, but couldnt decide on a definite one. I know it lives or is native in Germany, but thats the only info I know. When doing a search, the ringneck was the only one that I saw who was native to there. Hopefully one of yall know what this is. Thanks, and hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

 

[chicks are me]

not sure(and I don't know much about pheasants), but are you certain it's a pure breed?
and is it stuffed?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Look like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Pheasant to me?

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

That is a red golden, and no they are not native to germany. They do have ringnecks, so could be that it was someones escaped pet who joined up with a group of ringnecks and got shot in the process. Probably got kept and mounted because someone thought its some sort of mutant ringneck.

 

[drowe005]

Thats what I told her I thought it was, but wasnt sure cause with it being so old and some of the colors faded. Thanks

 

[De Wet]

At Thanksgiving today, my aunt was telling me about this mounted pheasant she had, that her uncle shot while living in Germany and then brought it over here when he moved over. When she got home, she sent me a picture and I was going to tell her what it was, but was unsure; I had a couple ideas, but couldnt decide on a definite one. I know it lives or is native in Germany, but thats the only info I know. When doing a search, the ringneck was the only one that I saw who was native to there. Hopefully one of yall know what this is. Thanks, and hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

it looks like this fella have to much the previous night acording to his eyes

 

[Lophura]

It is a Golden, rather worn & faded (age of mount?). It is true that Goldens are not native to Germany, but over the last two hundred years, many attempts have been made to establish many Galliforme species throughout the European mainland - some with success and some with not. There are known self-sustaining populations in the UK and at one time, small numbers breeding in France & Germany in the wild (Mullarney, K., Svensson, L., Zetterström, D., Grant, P.J. 1999. Birds of Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.), (Madge, S., McGowan, P. 2002. Pheasants, Partridges, and Grouse. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.), (Johnsgard, P.A. 1999. The Pheasants of the World: Biology and Natural History. 2nd ed., Smithsonian Press, Washington D.C.). Goldens have been attempted to be introduced all over the world, including such areas as the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, & even parts of the US. It is possible that in some area of introductions & escapes that a few of these birds bred, but likely died out after a couple of generations.

It would be interesting to know the year the bird was shot to see if it coincides with the introduction attempts.

Dan

 

[drowe005]

Thanks for the info, I don't know an exact time frame of when the bird was shot, but I can try to find out. If I were to take a guess, I would imagine 40-50 years ago. I know it definately wasn't recently though for sure.