Mister Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Mrs Grosbeak. I've never seen Grosbeaks before, and to able to catch pics was really special!

Not recent, but this past winter these 2 pheasants spent hours right outside the bedroom window. I went downstairs and caught pics of them at ground level. I banged on the window, trying to get them to both raise their heads but they were hungry!

Awesome pics! You made me laugh! Thanks so very much for sharing.

Nerry

Very nice! Those orioles were probably saying "I go first", "No, I go first", "Go find your own orange!"

I wonder if those pheasants were released for the hunters. If so, they probably had a hard time finding food in an unfamiliar place.

Claire

There are a lot of pheasants in my area. I don't think they were brought here. I hear hunters complain about how few there are these last years. I'm thinking...look around! I don't say it out loud!

I wish I lived where I'd see those beautiful pheasants.

I once saw a Ring-necked Pheasant in my yard and did a little searching to learn about it. Unfortunately, I learned that the pheasant wasn't wild here.

I just found this Mass.gov site on Pheasant Hunting in Massachusetts. They say:

"Ring-necked pheasants have been imported and released in Massachusetts since 1906. At that time the Massachusetts landscape was much different than it is today. The state was 80% open fields and pasture and 20% forested.

Today, just the opposite is true. Pheasants prefer agricultural areas and open field habitats. As both forests and human development have increased, pheasant habitat has decreased. This is why there are only scattered occurrences of breeding pheasants in the state.

For the most part, regulated pheasant hunting in Massachusetts relies on stocking of farm raised birds by MassWildlife into appropriate habitat. Pheasants are also stocked on other private and publicly owned lands by cooperating sportsmen's clubs who participate in what is known as the Club Pheasant Program. In this program sportsmens clubs raise birds (or cooperate with county correctional facilities for bird raising) then stock the birds during the pheasant season on lands open to the public.
pheasant_stocking

Over the past 15 years MassWildlife has annually stocked an average of 40,000 pheasants statewide."

Claire

Kinda takes the fun out of seeing a pretty bird, doesn't it Claire? Almost like seeing a Falcon deep in the city skyline - cool to look at but not natural. I'm in Iowa farm country - wide open corn fields like your quote says. This is from iowadnr.gov:
"IowaâÂÂs pheasant counts have always averaged higher
because the Iowa DNR has acquired a lot of top qual
ity public land along the MN border.
Pheasant populations in both states crashed from 19
81-84 following 3 severe winters. Both states show
ed a steady increasing trend in pheasant
populations from 1985 onward " the Conservation Res
erve Program started in 1985 and added significant
pheasant habitat to both states. Note
IowaâÂÂs pheasant population increased at a faster ra
te than MinnesotaâÂÂs even though Iowa had consistent
ly longer pheasant hunting seasons and a
higher daily bag limit from 1985 thru 2000."

It does indeed take the fun out of seeing a pheasant here in MA, sparky10. I'm glad to hear that Iowa has a stable breeding pheasant population and your pheasants had just found a nice new food source.

I had the same feeling once when I saw a very unusual bird in early winter. It was great to see it but I really hoped it wasn't doomed here. I never saw it again so I can tell myself it found its way south.

Claire

Great pix. Especially like the orioles. Even though pheasants are not native at least they don't take over nest sites from native birds like house sparrows & starlings do. At least I don't think they do. I once saw a peahen in the woods here in East Tennessee-obviously not native! But still cool to see, just like pheasants.
Susan