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The flying pheasant

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Oh yes, pheasants do fly.

A few years ago, when I still lived right next to a show garden, they had planted a row of sunflowers as a border between one of the veggie beds and a walkway.

And I saw a pheasant male go behind those sunflowers.

These were young sunflowers, and still so dense that you couldn't see through that row. You could se over it, sure, but I didn't want to alarm that pheasant ... yet. He had been walking downhill at a leasurely pace.

So I crept along that row on the other side, quite a bit faster than I had seen that pheasant go, and popped up at the end of the row in front of him, waving my arms and making a face.

He flew at least 40 meters! I haven't seen pheasants fly that far before, or after.

Me, I fell down laughing.

--
Cruel? No. Pheasants shouldn't get too used to humans, and they shouldn't get all that comfortable in a garden. They do eat herbs and young veggies.

Comments

I've seen pheasants fly before - there's a whole parcel near where my parents live. It's not the flying so much, but the fact that when they take off they make enough noise for an F-14. Imagine going for a nice peaceful walk in the lane and then having an unseen startled pheasant explode out of the bushes at you. *infarction*

Anyway. Canajen pheasants may not be the same as Finnish ones.

Aye, ours do fly when flushed out, but usually less than 10 meters.
Granted, most of our pheasants are overbred (and rather stupid) birdshooters' prey - they might be leaner and better equipped for flying, where they're not introduced as birds of prey (ah hah, I'm so funny.)