Social Media Star Visits Our Neighborhood
Earlier this year my neighbors saw a rare bird in their backyard I was surprised when I saw it was a pheasant. The first time I heard about the pheasant, was when I was walking home from school. One of my neighbors walked up to me and started talking about the pheasant. I was surprised because I had never seen this bird around my house.
I spoke with another neighbor, Cathy Miller, about the pheasant. She first saw the pheasant when someone posted about it online. Then one day it showed up in her backyard.
“I made sure to get as many pictures as I could.” She said
People had been posting about it on social media and wondered what kind of bird it was. This was the first time many people had ever seen a pheasant here.
“I know that it’s been in other neighborhoods because I’ve seen it on Next Door and Gladstone Chitchat that there have been sightings of it,” Cathey said. “In fact, somebody sighted two of them together, so I know it kind of gets around the neighborhood. I don’t know if it has a favorite haunt, but I hope that it comes back.”
I think the reason we are seeing it here is because the area we live in is kind of like one of their preferred habitats. They are originally native to Asia but were brought to the U.S. They thrive in the Willamette Valley because the habitat here is similar to its native region.
The ring-necked pheasant is easy to spot because it has red and green feathers that glow in the sun. The males also have long tail feathers. “When the sun hits its iridescent feathers, it is the most beautiful thing,” said Cathy.
I think that it’s ironic that a couple days after I interviewed Cathy I saw the ring-necked pheasant at a school near our house then after that I saw it on the roof of another neighbor's house. Here are a few fun facts that I found when researching the ring-necked pheasant:
Females will sometimes lay eggs in other females' nests.
When it becomes extremely cold out the pheasant becomes dormant and slows down its metabolism.
The males will chase prairie chickens out of their nests and use them as their own.
Ring-necked pheasants are social birds often found in a big group of pheasants.