i found a pretty large, colourful bird on my balcony! what is it?? (1 Viewer)

T

treefingers

New member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #1

hello, i only signed up because i found this really interesting bird on my balcony. it definitly does not belong here, so it must have been someone's pet and gotten loose.

here is a picture of it:

sorry it's not too clear, i took it from behind a screen door.


it is about the size of a chicken/hen, but leaner...the colours are very bright/vibrant as you can see, and the way it walked and moved its neck was a lot like a chicken. we called Animal Services but there was no answer (it was closed), and the Humane Society couldn't do anything. as we tried to get closer to the bird it flew to the neighbour's yard, and if we went closer it flew to the next neighbour's yard, and so on....

i'm just worried about it now and i hope it isn't harmed. :/ i'm thinking it ended up in a park and that some people will see it tomorrow and call Animal Services again.

so anyway, any of you know what it is?? i looked for a while on wikipedia but it doens't seem to match any parrots or anything else i've seen. i'm pretty stumped.

 

robinm

Registered User

• Aug 18, 2006

• #2

Hi treefingers,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin.

I am sure you are right and that this is someone's escaped pet, but I'm afraid I can't help with the id. I am sure someone on BirdForum will know.

 

J

Jurij Hanžel

Registrirani uporabnik

• Aug 18, 2006

• #3

Golden Pheasant Chrysolophus pictus

 

T

treefingers

New member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #4

hey that looks like it could very well be it. although, i'm not sure it had the stripes and it had a lot more blue and green than the golden pheasants i am seeing pictures of on google. then again, i know almost nothing about birds, so you could be right.

 

robinm

Registered User

• Aug 18, 2006

• #5

Jurij Hanžel said:

Golden Pheasant Chrysolophus pictus

Click to expand...

Here is a photo of Golden Pheasant from our database - http://www.birdforum.net/bird_view.php?bid=3330.

 

lockbreeze926

Well-known member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #6

It is most definitely a male Golden Pheasant.

 

White*Kite

Forever delayed

• Aug 18, 2006

• #7

Yes it's definitely a male Golden Pheasant - they're pretty unmistakeable birds, there's nothing else that looks like them.

 

Isurus

Well-known member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #8

its probably worth mentioning there are a number of different domesticated forms of GP so yours may well look a little different from the pictures you see here.

 

T

treefingers

New member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #9

Isurus said:

its probably worth mentioning there are a number of different domesticated forms of GP so yours may well look a little different from the pictures you see here.

Click to expand...

ahh, i guess that would make more sense then.


and people usually keep these birds as pets?? somehow i always imagined people having parrots as pets, not pheasants.

 

D

danehower

Well-known member

• Aug 18, 2006

• #10

Wow that is a colorful bird . Looks like Matisse went insane on a bird .lol.

 

cuckooroller

Registered User

• Aug 19, 2006

• #11

treefingers said:

and people usually keep these birds as pets?? somehow i always imagined people having parrots as pets, not pheasants.

Click to expand...

Well to say pet might be a reach. I don't know how much emotional involvement might be had with a bird essentially as dumb as a Chicken. They are kept mostly for ornamental reasons much as a Peacock. Some people eat them, after all they are Pheasants. Also, great favorites with Fly Fishermen - as might be imagined skins of many colorful birds, including this one, are sold for fly tying purposes.

 

White*Kite

Forever delayed

• Aug 20, 2006

• #12

Isurus said:

its probably worth mentioning there are a number of different domesticated forms of GP so yours may well look a little different from the pictures you see here.

Click to expand...

There are indeed quite a few different colour mutations of Golden Pheasant in captivity, but the one in the picture is a standard normal, or 'Red', Golden Pheasant, so shouldn't look any different to the pics you see of normal or wild birds.