Surprise Visitor to a home in LaGrange, New York, USA (1 Viewer)

[gthang]

In the local newspaper today, front page headline "Surprise Visitor" screamed out at me. The photo accompanying the article showed a colorful bird walking in some grass.

Turns out the bird is a Golden Pheasant, a bird native to China. The homeowner and local wildlife experts have no idea where it came from. Two hunting experts say that golden pheasants are not stocked at local game preserves.

It has been at the property for several weeks, and is still there.

Is there any way to tell if this could be a wild bird?

There's no bands on its legs (kind of like dog tags). And the bird has not been reported missing by anyone missing a pet.

BTW, a google image search for the bird yielded a bunch of pictures, some nearly identical to the bird in the paper. What is the nominate subspecies plumage? The bird in the paper has a red body, yellow head, streaked ear patches, green on the upper back, blue on the wings, and a speckled tail.

 

[Alison G.]

How odd, I had a juvenile Red Golden Pheasant walk down my driveway on 4/28/06 and posted a query here on the forum. A week later my neighbor found it hit by a car so I was able to confirm the ID. As you say, no one claims to raise them in the area, and no one reported one missing The folks at the NJ State Pheasant farm pointed out it had to have been hatched in January to be the age it was, which means it had to been raised inside before it was released. In my search for information I did see that there were many websites offering Game Bird eggs and chicks so presume if you want one, you can get one.

They are quite lovely, so I hope you get to enjoy seeing yours for longer than I did.

 

[gthang]

It's not mine, but i plan to see it, wild or not. It would be a Exotic Bird lifer (long story short, any exotic birds I see that could have been raised in poultry farms are added to my exotic bird list and not my real life list. So far only the Helmeted Guineafowl is on my Exotics list). If it is indeed wild (if there is any way to tell if it is wild, please let me know), then it will be added to the regular life list.

FYI, the Helmeted Guineafowl may end up on my regular life list, as I saw two birds in near a house in Putnam Valley, and the next year saw some crossing a street about 15 miles away from the previous sighting. I know both sightings could've been domesticated birds, but there's a chance that they were wild birds. I could always go to Africa, but I can't afford it.