WHITE PHEASANT
Posted: December 11th, 2018, 2:31 pm
by toofast2live
They've been blasting pheasants from the sky around here for a couple of weeks now, but today I saw a first - a white male pheasant in the garden. It wasn't albino has it still had some red around its eyes and TBH there was a small splash of brown at the tip of the tail, but anyway it was a big surpise as i've not seen one before in 30 years of living here.
I'm assuming they're not as rare as I think? And surely not a breeding ploy to make them easier targets
Re: WHITE PHEASANT
Posted: December 12th, 2018, 2:16 am
by Breelander
toofast2live wrote:today I saw a first - a white male pheasant in the garden. It wasn't albino has it still had some red around its eyes and TBH there was a small splash of brown at the tip of the tail...
Then it may be a genetic condition known as Leucism.
http://aviangenetics.com/PheasantGeneti ... ained.htmlBut it could be albino after all. Not all albinism is complete, apparently...
http://aviangenetics.com/PheasantGeneti ... lbino.htmlEither way, it is a rare but natural mutation.
Re: WHITE PHEASANT
Posted: December 12th, 2018, 11:05 am
by bungeejumper
Interesting. We had a few of them around these southern parts, about ten years ago. And very arresting they were, too!
Forget hunters with guns. The main problem with being a white pheasant is that every fox can see you from a mile away. Not a very helpful mutation really.
BJ