The ring-necked pheasants' order is Galliformes, the family is Phasianidae, and the genus is Colchicus. Ring- necked pheasants are very smart birds.

    The pheasant is bigger than a chicken. They weigh about 5 pounds and are about 36 inches or more long. The male ring-necked pheasant is brown with black and white specks, and a thin neck. It has a green head with a red ring around its eye. The female is plain brown.The adult male has a barred tail. The females don't. Females are shorter than males.

    The ring-necked pheasant lives in North America, but it is originally from Europe. Their habitat is forests, woodland scrub, and grasslands.They are ground-dwelling birds.

    The ring-necked pheasant will eat bugs, insects, grasshoppers, beetles, grass shoots, invertebrates, fallen fruit, roots and many other things in the wild. But at the Brandywine Zoo, the pheasants eat mostly cracked corn and a game bird diet.

        During mating the male ring-necked pheasant mates with lots of females and guards them until the eggs are hatched. The eggs are fluffy brown. The female will lay about 12 at a time, but sometimes only 10 eggs hatch. The nests are found on the ground, and it takes 22 to 24 days for the eggs to hatch. The chicks have a bright eyeball and wobbly pink legs when they hatch. They leave the nest within a few hours, feed themselves, and are able to fly within a week after birth. They will live about 3 to 5 years.

    The ring-necked pheasant makes two calls. One sounds like clucking, and the other sounds like an old car horn.

    The ring-necked pheasant can run pretty fast. They can't fly very high, but they will fly to go far away or to escape from danger. Their enemies are coyotes, wild cats, foxes and people.

    The Brandywine Zoo has two ring-necked pheasants, one male and one female. The zoo keeper said that their birds are hard to see because they are shy.

For more information visit:
http://www.imperial.cc.ca.us/birds/pheasant.htm
http://bcadventures.com/adventure/wilderness/birds/ringneck.htm
http://dep.state.ct.us/burnatr/wildlife/factshts/pheasant.htm
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/Idtips/h3091id.html
http://www.geobop.com/Birds/Galliformes/Phasianidae/Phasianinae/Phasianus_colchicus/index.htm
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/Idtips/h3091id.html
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/othrdata/pheasant/pheasant.htm
                                                                                                   by Megan
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