Pheasant fighting!

[philaw]

No, I didn't put money on it, but I DID see a pair of male pheasants trying to peck each other's faces off yesterday. It was at Constantine Wood, near South Cave in east yorks, and one even chased the other up into the trees. I've not been in a wood like that before, where the floor is carpeted with Ramsons (wild garlic), snowdrops, bluebells and other wild plants. It was so much more alive than the planted pine forests. It must have been the best day of the year to be there, with patches of sun shining through the canopy.

 

[Buckshot]

Sounds luvly.
It's the teritory thing with the pheasants, like most other males they have thier area to entice the females

Mark

 

[Scally]

they can gow very impresive spurs on the back of the legs for fighting.....

 

[philaw]

Spurs, eh? They looked more like they were trying to intimidate than actually fight. I thought they were going for each other's eyes, but they only ever landed 'pecks' on the beak. They certainly focused on what they were doing, though, because my size thirteens make more noise than a car and I got pretty close. Maybe they go easy on the fighting because evolution doesn't favour the animals that kill each other before getting chance to mate.

 

[davedd]

ducks and chickens do the same thing for some reason they try and blind each other.