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.