Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Phasianus colchi­cus is a non-mi­gra­tory species na­tive to Eura­sia. The na­tive range ex­tends from the Caspian Sea, east across cen­tral Asia to China, and in­cludes Korea, Japan, and for­mer Burma. It was in­tro­duced to Eu­rope, North Amer­ica, New Zealand, Aus­tralia, and Hawaii. In North Amer­ica, Phasianus colchi­cus pop­u­la­tions have been es­tab­lished on mid-lat­i­tude agri­cul­tural lands from south­ern Canada to Utah, Cal­i­for­nia to New Eng­land states, and south to Vir­ginia. (Fed­er­a­tion of Al­berta Nat­u­ral­ists, 2007; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Pratt, et al., 1944; Whit­field, 1984)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • introduced
• palearctic
  • native
• australian
  • introduced

Habi­tat

Com­mon pheas­ants oc­cupy grass­land and farm­land habi­tats. They pre­fer rel­a­tively open cover, such as grass and stub­ble fields and are found in habi­tats with grass, ditches, hedges, marshes, and tree stands or bushes for cover. They are gen­er­al­ists oc­cu­py­ing a wide range of habi­tat types ex­cept areas with dense rain­for­est, alpine forests, or very dry places. This flex­i­bil­ity is ex­em­pli­fied in their suc­cess­ful in­tro­duc­tion to trop­i­cal habi­tats in Hawaii where only heavy pre­cip­i­ta­tion and high al­ti­tudes pose the great­est habi­tat lim­i­ta­tion.

Open water is not a re­quire­ment for Phasianus colchi­cus, but most pop­u­la­tions are found where water is pre­sent. In drier habi­tats, com­mon pheas­ants ob­tain water from dew, in­sects, and suc­cu­lent veg­e­ta­tion.

Com­mon pheas­ants oc­cupy agri­cul­tural areas but the move­ment to­wards in­creas­ingly large agri­cul­tural op­er­a­tions is detri­men­tal to habi­tat. Land-use tran­si­tions to larger op­er­a­tions in­clude a loss of field-edge habi­tat (fewer fencerows), re­moval of bushes, burn­ing of marshes, a trend to­wards mono­cul­ture, sub­ur­ban sprawl, and com­mer­cial de­vel­op­ment. This habi­tat degra­da­tion leads to re­duc­tion of cover habi­tat and fewer small bod­ies of water for Phasianus colchi­cus. (Fed­er­a­tion of Al­berta Nat­u­ral­ists, 2007; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Schwartz and Shwartz, 1951; Whit­field, 1984)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

• Wetlands
• marsh

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  0 to 3353 m

  0.00 to 11000.66 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Com­mon pheas­ants are medium-sized birds with deep, pear-shaped bod­ies, small heads and long, thin tails. They are sex­u­ally di­mor­phic, with males being more col­or­ful and larger than fe­males. Males have spec­tac­u­lar, multi-col­ored plumage with long, pointed, barred tails and fleshy red eye patches. Their heads range in color from glossy dark green to iri­des­cent pur­ple. Many sub­species have a dis­tinc­tive white col­lar around their neck which gives them their ‘ring-necked’ name. Fe­male Phasianus colchi­cus are less col­or­ful. They have buff brown, mot­tled plumage and, like males, have long pointed tails, al­though they are shorter than those of males.

There are two major group­ings of sub­species within Phasianus colchi­cus. The colchi­cus group, or ring-necked pheas­ants, are na­tive to main­land Eura­sia. They are barred, with cop­pery red or yel­low on their man­tle and un­der­parts, and have the promi­nent neck ring. Thirty-one sub­species are listed under this group­ing. The other group­ing of sub­species is the ver­si­color group, which lacks the neck ring and has green on their neck, breast, and upper belly. This group is na­tive to Japan and was in­tro­duced to Hawaii. There are three sub­species in the ver­si­color group. (Dela­cour, 1977; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Green­berg, 2002; Johns­gard, 1975; Johns­gard, 1986)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful
• ornamentation

• Average mass

  1263 g

  44.51 oz

• Range length

  42.5 to 53.6 cm

  16.73 to 21.10 in

• Range wingspan

  23.5 to 25.8 cm

  9.25 to 10.16 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Com­mon pheas­ants are polyg­y­nous, with a sin­gle male hav­ing a harem of sev­eral fe­males. Com­mon pheas­ants breed sea­son­ally. In early spring (mid-March to early June) males es­tab­lish breed­ing or crow­ing ter­ri­to­ries. These ter­ri­to­ries are rel­a­tive in terms of other males’ ter­ri­to­ries and do not nec­es­sar­ily have de­fin­i­tive bound­aries. On the other hand, fe­males are not ter­ri­to­r­ial. Within their breed­ing harem, they may show a dom­i­nance hi­er­ar­chy. These harems last through the court­ing and nest­ing pe­riod and may have 2 to 18 fe­males. Each fe­male typ­i­cally has a sea­son­ally monog­a­mous re­la­tion­ship with one ter­ri­to­r­ial male. In early spring, males es­tab­lish a harem by crow­ing and wing-whirring dis­plays. Crow­ing is the dis­tinc­tive, loud ko­rrk-kok call of males which they use to main­tain their ter­ri­tory. This may be pre­ceded by an al­most in­audi­ble wing-flap, after which the male may per­form a brief but vig­or­ous wing-whirring. Phys­i­cal in­ter­ac­tions be­tween com­pet­ing males may in­clude fly­ing at each other breast-to-breast, bit­ing wat­tles, or high leaps with kicks to­ward the other’s bill. Males who es­tab­lish breed­ing ter­ri­to­ries ear­lier in the sea­son tend to be dom­i­nant over males es­tab­lish­ing ter­ri­tory later. Mate se­lec­tion by fe­males is de­pen­dent on a few fac­tors. Fe­male com­mon pheas­ants tend to choose dom­i­nant males who can, for ex­am­ple, offer pro­tec­tion. Stud­ies have found that fe­males pre­fer long tails in males and that the length of ear tufts and pres­ence of black points on the wat­tle also in­flu­ences fe­male choice. The gen­eral bright­ness of a male's plumage is not a fac­tor, per­haps be­cause bright­ness is not cor­re­lated to testos­terone lev­els or dom­i­nant be­hav­iors in male com­mon pheas­ants.

Males have dif­fer­ent courtship dis­plays which elicit dif­fer­ent re­sponses in fe­males. One study found that feed­ing rit­u­als in males at­tracted fe­male com­mon pheas­ants, while lat­eral dis­play courtship be­hav­iors in males aroused fe­males for cop­u­la­tion. In a lat­eral dis­play, the male ap­proaches the fe­male, cross­ing slowly in a semi­cir­cle in front of her with his head low, the nearer wing drooped and his wat­tle erect. This lat­eral dis­play often pre­cedes cop­u­la­tion but later in the sea­son a male may sim­ply pur­sue and at­tempt to mount a fe­male. (Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Green­berg, 2002; Johns­gard, 1975; Johns­gard, 1986; Ma­teos and Car­ranza, 1995; Ma­teos and Car­ranza, 1999; Whit­field, 1984)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Nest­ing be­gins just be­fore fe­males start to lay eggs. The fe­male will scrape a shal­low de­pres­sion in the ground in a well cov­ered area, lin­ing it lightly with read­ily avail­able plant ma­te­r­ial. She will typ­i­cally lay one egg a day until 7 to 15 eggs have been laid. Larger clutches of eggs arise when two or more hens lay in the same nest. The fe­male will re­main close to the nest, in­cu­bat­ing the eggs for most of the day, leav­ing in the morn­ing and evening to feed. Chicks are pre­co­cial at hatch­ing, com­pletely cov­ered with down and with their eyes open. They are able to im­me­di­ately begin walk­ing and fol­low­ing the hen to sources of food; they are largely self-feed­ing. (Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Grz­imek, et al., 2003; Johns­gard, 1986; Whit­field, 1984)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Ring-necked pheasants breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  The ring-necked pheasant breeding season extends from mid-March to June.

• Range eggs per season

  7 to 15

• Average eggs per season

  10

• Range time to hatching

  23 to 28 days

• Average time to hatching

  24 days

• Range fledging age

  7 to 12 days

• Range time to independence

  70 to 80 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Most parental in­vest­ment in com­mon pheas­ants is by fe­males. After build­ing her nest and lay­ing the eggs, the fe­male is re­spon­si­ble for in­cu­bat­ing them. In­cu­ba­tion takes ap­prox­i­mately 23 days after the final egg is laid. When the chicks hatch, they are cared for solely by the hen. They are pre­co­cial when they hatch, cov­ered with down, eyes open, and legs de­vel­oped. They are able to im­me­di­ately begin fol­low­ing the hen to sources of food and the young chicks will feed them­selves. The hen’s main role is to lead her chicks to food after hatch­ing. By about 12 days, young are able to fly and typ­i­cally re­main with the hen for 70 to 80 days be­fore be­com­ing in­de­pen­dent. (Green­berg, 2002; Johns­gard, 1986; Whit­field, 1984)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Chick sur­vival is in­flu­enced by hatch date, mass at birth, and habi­tat type. Many young don’t live be­yond au­tumn. An­nual sur­vival rate of adult fe­males is 21 to 46%, while it is only 7% for males. In some areas the re­duced sur­vival rate of males can be ac­counted for by the hunt­ing of male com­mon pheas­ants by hu­mans. Nearly all wild birds die by age three. Adult mor­tal­ity is caused by pre­da­tion, agri­cul­tural ac­tiv­i­ties, ex­po­sure to pes­ti­cides and tox­ins, and ac­ci­dents with mo­tor­ized ve­hi­cles. (Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Mar­tin, et al., 1996)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  11 to 18 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  3 years

Be­hav­ior

Com­mon pheas­ants are so­cial birds. In the au­tumn, they flock to­gether, some­times in large groups in areas with food and cover. Usu­ally the core home range is smaller in the win­ter than dur­ing the nest­ing sea­son. Flocks formed in the win­ter may be mixed or sin­gle-sexed and may have up to 50 pheas­ants. A male is typ­i­cally found with a harem of fe­males dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. Com­mon pheas­ants are mostly seden­tary, but they may dis­play some mi­gra­tory ten­den­cies based on food and cover avail­abil­ity. Mi­gra­tory move­ments are ob­served in north­ern pop­u­la­tions where cold weather forces birds to find milder con­di­tions. Group dis­per­sal in early spring is grad­ual rather than abrupt, with males leav­ing first.

Com­mon pheas­ants spend most of their time on the ground and roost both on the ground and in trees. They are swift run­ners and walk with a “strut­ting gait.” While they are feed­ing, they hold their tail hor­i­zon­tal; while they run, they hold it on a forty-five de­gree angle. Com­mon pheas­ants are strong fliers; they are able to flush nearly ver­ti­cal in take-off. Males often emit a croak­ing call dur­ing take-off. They take flight when threat­ened.

Com­mon pheas­ants use dust bathing, in­volv­ing sweep­ing sand and dirt par­ti­cles into their plumage by bill-rak­ing, ground scratch­ing, or wing shak­ing. This be­hav­ior helps to re­move dead epi­der­mal cells, ex­cess oil, old feath­ers, and the sheaths of new feath­ers. (Ap­ple­gate, et al., 2002; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Johns­gard, 1986)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• sedentary
• territorial
• social

• Range territory size

  0.8 to 3.2 km^2

Home Range

Both male and fe­male com­mon pheas­ants have larger home ranges dur­ing the nest­ing sea­son than when win­ter­ing. Dur­ing nest­ing sea­son, fe­males typ­i­cally have larger home ranges than males. In Mis­souri, win­ter­ing home ranges of some hens were re­ported to be 63.7 hectares, while in Mary­land they were re­ported to be 49.7 hectares. In Iowa home ranges of both 76 and 96 hectares were found. These dif­fer­ences may be in­flu­enced by dif­fer­ences in weather, land cover and usage, and pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties. (Ap­ple­gate, et al., 2002; Smith, et al., 1999)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

When alarmed, com­mon pheas­ants make dis­tinc­tive hoarse croak­ing notes. In males, this is a loud, pierc­ing, dou­ble squawk ko-ork kok, with a sharp stac­cato on the last syl­la­ble. This crow­ing call is also made when males are es­tab­lish­ing their ter­ri­tory. In agri­cul­tural areas, males may be heard crow­ing at dusk, dawn, and dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son. This call is very sim­i­lar to the fa­mil­iar call of a rooster and can travel up to a mile. Fe­male calls tend to be more sub­tle and less likely to be au­di­ble. (Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Johns­gard, 1975)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Com­mon pheas­ants are di­etary gen­er­al­ists, eat­ing a wide va­ri­ety of plant mat­ter, such as grain, seeds, shoots, and berries, as well as in­sects and small in­ver­te­brates. Com­mon pheas­ants are mostly ground dwelling and scratch for food in the un­der­growth with their bill. They usu­ally for­age in the early morn­ing and evening. Im­por­tant agri­cul­tural crops eaten by com­mon pheas­ants are corn (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum), bar­ley (Hordeum vul­gare), and flax (Lineum) Weed seeds they eat in North Amer­ica are fox­tail (Se­taria lutescens), rag­weed (Am­brosia) and sun­flower seeds (He­lianthus annus). Wild grape (Vitis), ap­ples (Malus), and black­ber­ries (Rubus) are some fruits eaten. They also eat grasshop­pers (Or­thoptera), cater­pil­lars (Lep­i­doptera), crick­ets (Gryl­l­i­dae), and snails (Gas­tropoda). (Dale, et al., 1956; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

Adult com­mon pheas­ants may be preyed on ei­ther while on the ground or in flight. Some of their be­hav­ioral re­sponses to dan­ger in­clude re­treat­ing into cover or hid­ing. They also may fly, crouch, or run. Hens fac­ing a preda­tor may dis­play a bro­ken wing in an at­tempt to draw their preda­tor away from their nest or they may just try to sit very still. When chicks in a brood are preyed on, often more than one is taken at a time. Ex­po­sure to ex­treme weather is also at­trib­uted to chick mor­tal­ity. Game hunt­ing by hu­mans is a sig­nif­i­cant pre­da­tion con­cern for male pheas­ants in some areas. Com­mon pheas­ants are par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­a­ble to pre­da­tion dur­ing nest­ing. Stud­ies have shown that con­trol of nest preda­tors, par­tic­u­larly red foxes, can be a sig­nif­i­cant pheas­ant con­ser­va­tion tool. Ad­di­tion­ally, in­creased pheas­ant pre­da­tion rates are linked closely to in­creased rates of habi­tat de­struc­tion. This may be be­cause habi­tat degra­da­tion ren­ders prey more vul­ner­a­ble to preda­tors. Stud­ies have also been con­ducted to de­ter­mine whether cer­tain sub­species have higher sur­vival rates in spe­cific habi­tats. One par­tic­u­lar study fo­cused on the Sichuan sub­species of com­mon pheas­ants, which nest in woody cover, a trait which makes them less sus­cep­ti­ble to agri­cul­tural land degra­da­tion. How­ever, this study found that Sichuan hens had no sur­vival ad­van­tage over hens of other sub­species. Much in­for­ma­tion on pre­da­tion in com­mon pheas­ants is known from North Amer­i­can pop­u­la­tions, where they are an im­por­tant game species. (Dray­cott, et al., 2008a; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Ship­ley and Scott, 2006)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
  • domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)
  • coyotes (Canis latrans)
  • badgers (Taxidea taxus)
  • mink (Neovison vison)
  • weasel species (Mustela)
  • striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis)
  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • great horned owls (Bubo virginianus)
  • red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis)
  • red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus)
  • rough-legged hawks (Buteo lagopus)
  • Cooper’s hawks (Accipiter cooperii)
  • northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis)
  • peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus)
  • northern harriers (Circus cyaneus)
  • snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Com­mon pheas­ants play a role as prey for larger car­ni­vores and as an in­sec­ti­vore, help­ing to con­trol in­sect pop­u­la­tions. They may also dis­perse seeds through their seed pre­da­tion. They may neg­a­tively af­fect greater prairie chick­ens (Tym­pa­nuchus cu­pido) and gray par­tridges (Perdix perdix) through nest par­a­sitism, habi­tat com­pe­ti­tion, trans­mis­sion of dis­ease, and ag­gres­sive be­hav­iour. A study in Kansas re­ported nest par­a­sitism of lesser prairie chick­ens by com­mon pheas­ants. This rate of nest par­a­sitism ap­peared to be den­sity-de­pen­dent, in­creas­ing as nest site avail­abil­ity de­creased. Other stud­ies have in­ves­ti­gated the neg­a­tive im­pact of com­mon pheas­ants on greater prairie chick­ens through nest par­a­sitism. Pheas­ant eggs hatch ear­lier than prairie chicken eggs. The rate of em­bryo mor­tal­ity or nest aban­don­ment in­creases in par­a­sitized prairie-chicken nests.

The re­lease of com­mon pheas­ants into wood­land areas for game shoot­ing is com­mon. One study in Britain looked into the im­pact of this prac­tice. They found that there was a neu­tral or pos­i­tive im­pact of com­mon pheas­ants on veg­e­ta­tion and bird com­mu­ni­ties. How­ever, it is im­por­tant to note that this study was done in pheas­ant-man­aged wood­land areas and this man­age­ment prac­tice may have been more ben­e­fi­cial than the pres­ence of pheas­ants them­selves. (Al­dous and Alexan­der, 2008; Dray­cott, et al., 2008b; Hagen, et al., 2002; West­e­meier, et al., 1998)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The pre­dom­i­nant ben­e­fit of Phasianus colchi­cus to hu­mans is as an up­land game bird. (Fed­er­a­tion of Al­berta Nat­u­ral­ists, 2007; Green­berg, 2002)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Com­mon pheas­ants are highly sus­cep­ti­ble to New­cas­tle dis­ease, a sig­nif­i­cant dis­ease in birds be­cause of high mor­tal­ity rates in those af­fected. Dis­ease out­breaks have eco­nomic im­pli­ca­tions in­clud­ing trade em­bar­gos and re­stric­tions of poul­try sales in areas of out­break. Com­mon pheas­ants can carry New­cas­tle dis­ease and spread it to other wild and do­mes­tic birds, which can be po­ten­tially neg­a­tive to hu­mans. (Al­dous and Alexan­der, 2008)

• Negative Impacts
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Com­mon pheas­ants are widely dis­trib­uted and their con­ser­va­tion sta­tus is of least con­cern. (Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001; Giu­dice and Ratti, 2001)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Charley Switzer (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, Au­gus­tana Cam­pus, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects, Doris Audet (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, Au­gus­tana Cam­pus, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Al­dous, E., D. Alexan­der. 2008. New­cas­tle dis­ease in pheas­ants (Phasianus colchi­cus): A re­view. The Vet­eri­nary Jour­nal, 175/2: 181-185.

Ap­ple­gate, R., B. Flock, P. Gip­son, M. McCoy, K. Kemp. 2002. Home ranges of ring-necked pheas­ants in north­west­ern Kansas. Prairie Nat­u­ral­ist, 34/1-2: 21-29.

Dale, F., J. Lauck­hart, J. McK­ean. 1956. Pheas­ants in North Amer­ica. Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­va­nia: The Stack­pole Com­pany.

Dela­cour, J. 1977. The Pheas­ants of the World. Sur­rey, Eng­land: Spur Pub­li­ca­tions.

Dray­cott, R., A. Hood­less, R. Sage. 2008. Ef­fects of pheas­ant man­age­ment on veg­e­ta­tion and birds in low­land wood­lands. Jour­nal of Ap­plied Ecol­ogy, 45/1: 334-341.

Dray­cott, R., A. Hood­less, M. Wood­burn, R. Sage. 2008. Nest pre­da­tion of Com­mon Pheas­ants Phasianus colchi­cus. Ibis, 150/1: 37-44.

Fed­er­a­tion of Al­berta Nat­u­ral­ists, 2007. The Atlas of Breed­ing Birds of Al­berta: a sec­ond look. Al­tona, Man­i­toba, Canada: Fed­er­a­tion of Al­berta Nat­u­ral­ists.

Giu­dice, J., J. Ratti. 2001. "The Birds of North Amer­ica On­line" (On-line). Ring-necked Pheas­ant. Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 14, 2009 at http://​bna.​birds.​cornell.​edu/​bna/​species/​572/​articles/​introduction.

Green­berg, R. 2002. Ring-necked Pheas­ant. Pp. 185 in J Green­berg, J Hamil­ton, eds. Birds of Canada. Kyodo, Sin­ga­pore: Dor­ling Kinder­s­ley.

Grz­imek, B., G. Archibald, C. Berger. 2003. Fowls and pheas­ants (phasian­idae). Pp. 433-439 in M Hutchins, W Bock, J Jack­son, eds. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. 8, 2nd Edi­tion. Farm­ing­ton Hills, MI: Gale Group.

Hagen, C., B. Jami­son, R. Robel, R. Ap­ple­gate. 2002. Ring-necked Pheas­ant Par­a­sitism of Lesser Prairie Chicken Nests in Kansas. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 114/4: 522-524.

Hood­less, A., K. Kurten­bach, P. Nut­tall, S. Ran­dolph. 2002. The im­pact of ticks on pheas­ants ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity. Oikos, 96/2: 245-250.

Johns­gard, P. 1975. North Amer­i­can Game Birds of Up­land and Shore­line. Lin­coln, Ne­braska: Uni­ver­sity of Ne­braska Press.

Johns­gard, P. 1986. The Pheas­ants of the World. Ox­ford, New York: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Mar­tin, P., D. John­son, D. Forsyth. 1996. Ef­fects of grasshop­per-con­trol in­sec­ti­cides on sur­vival and brain acetyl­cholinesterase of pheas­ant (Phasianus colchi­cus) chicks. En­vi­ron­men­tal Tox­i­col­ogy and Chemisty, 15/4: 518-524.

Ma­teos, C., J. Car­ranza. 1999. Ef­fects of male dom­i­nance and courtship dis­play on fe­male choice in the ring-necked pheas­ant. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­ci­ol­ogy, 45/3-4: 235-244.

Ma­teos, C., J. Car­ranza. 1995. Fe­male choice for mor­pho­log­i­cal fea­tures of male ring-necked pheas­ants. An­i­mal Be­hav­iour, 49/3: 737-748.

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