Small game - birds

Colchis pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

The Colchis pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is a bird of the Pheasant family. It is also found in Bulgaria. This subspecies has a highly pronounced sexual dimorphism, characteristic of the pheasant genus. The male has a dark green neck with a violet sheen, without a white ring or white feathers. On his head there are well-defined tufts of feathers - ears. Around the eyes there is bare skin with a red color. Its throat and front breast are covered with copper-red feathers, edged with black. The elytra are brown, and the back and underparts are copper-red, with a purple sheen. When the rump of our pheasants is observed at a certain angle, a greenish tint is observed on it. The long sword-like tail of the Colchis pheasant is ochre-brown, tipped with copper-red. The middle rudder feathers have black transverse bands, which are very narrow at the base of the feather and wide towards the tip. On its legs, the pheasant has spikes - spurs, which are short, blunt and soft in young ones, longer and sharper in two-year-old roosters, and in older roosters they reach a length of about 2 cm and are very sharp. Females are light brown, with many brown-black spots on top, on the throat and on the front of the chest. Males reach a length of up to 1 m, but the tail takes up about half of that length. Their weight reaches 1300 gr. Females weigh about 850 gr.