Common pheasant

The colourful king of the riverside thickets

The pheasant is a beautiful bird of the riverside thickets of Uzbekistan. The male has a green-purple head, a copper body and a long tail; the female is brown — to hide in the grass. Pheasants can't fly well, but they run fast. When startled, one suddenly bursts into the air with a whir!

The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is a gamebird found from the Caucasus to China; in Uzbekistan 4 subspecies live in the tugai thickets of the Zarafshan, Amu Darya and Syr Darya (the Zarafshan pheasant, P. c. zerafschanicus). Its name comes from the River Phasis in ancient Colchis (Georgia); the Greeks brought it to Europe. Males are 90 cm (tail 50 cm), females 60 cm — strong sexual dimorphism. It feeds on the ground: seeds, insects, snakes. It takes off almost vertically and flies at 60 km/h, but not far. Females lay 8–12 eggs. As a gamebird it has been introduced worldwide (USA, Europe). Uzbekistan's Zarafshan Reserve (1975) was created specifically to protect the pheasant and the Bukhara deer.

Fun facts

• Pheasants fly poorly — but when startled they shoot up like a rocket.
• A male's tail is longer than its body — 50 cm.
• The Zarafshan pheasant is a subspecies found only in Uzbekistan.