The flying pheasant
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.
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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.
Aye, ours do fly when
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.)