{"id":1736,"date":"2011-01-01T16:12:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=1736"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T18:09:20","slug":"ring-necked-pheasant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/01\/ring-necked-pheasant\/","title":{"rendered":"Ring-necked Pheasant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Ring-necked Pheasant with ice encrusted tail – <\/strong>D200, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 265mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

HAPPY NEW YEAR!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This morning started off at 6 degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up shortly after 4 a.m., it is nearly 3 p.m. and it has only reached 18 degrees. Makes me wonder how birds and animals survive the cold, they are far better suited to it than I am!<\/p>\n

One of the birds I saw\u00a0this morning\u00a0while out photographing was this male Ring-necked Pheasant walking on frozen water with an ice encrusted tail. It must be hard to drag that behind the bird through the snow let alone try to fly with it.<\/p>\n

Ring-necked Pheasants are not native to North America. They were unsuccessfully introduced to New York between 1730 and 1733 then successfully introduced into Oregon in 1882. The pheasant was introduced to Utah in 1880.<\/p>\n

Pheasants were brought to North America because they are a game bird and used for recreational hunting purposes.<\/p>\n

Male Ring-necked Pheasants are very colorful and sport red face wattles, iridescent ear tufts, the white neck ring, and bronze colored chest and back with barring. I remember my grandfather using the pheasant feathers for the flies that he tied for fishing.<\/p>\n

I was surprised to read that Ring-necked Pheasants<\/span><\/a> only live about 4 years. I thought they lived longer than that.\u00a0 They feed on corn, grains, seeds, fruit, grass, and eat insects when they are available.<\/p>\n

I hope this pheasant’s tail defrosted today.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ring-necked Pheasant photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Male Ring-necked Pheasants are very colorful and sport red face wattles, iridescent ear tufts, the white neck ring and bronze colored chest and back with barring. I remember my grandfather using the pheasant feathers for the flies that he tied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1022,697,400,26],"tags":[4004,6303,2192,11354,4064,11353,4062,4094,11355,4255,4821,4822,2011,6285,401,4095,373],"class_list":["post-1736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-ring-necked-pheasants","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-colorful","tag-ear-tufts","tag-face-wattles","tag-ice","tag-ice-encrusted","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-neck-ring","tag-phasianus-colchicus","tag-pheasant","tag-pheasants","tag-ring-necked-pheasant","tag-tail","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ring-necked-pheasant-male-mia-mcpherson-0145.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-s0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6787,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/14\/male-ring-necked-pheasant-in-habitat\/","url_meta":{"origin":1736,"position":0},"title":"Male Ring-necked Pheasant in marsh habitat","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ring-necked Pheasants are colorful upland game birds that are native to Asia and were introduced into North America for recreational hunting purposes and now occur widespread across southern Canada and in many areas of the U.S. except for some of the southern states.","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Ring-necked Pheasant in habitat, northern Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ring-necked-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-9417.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ring-necked-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-9417.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-necked Pheasant male in snow in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ring-necked-pheasant-male-mia-mcpherson-3601.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ring-necked-pheasant-male-mia-mcpherson-3601.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ring-necked-pheasant-male-mia-mcpherson-3601.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ring-necked-pheasant-male-mia-mcpherson-3601.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Male Ring-necked Pheasants are a bold splash of rainbow colors against the white snow laying on the ground right now at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Ring-necked Pheasant portrait, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-necked-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-9941.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-necked-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-9941.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-necked-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-9941.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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