# Wierd Pheasant Feathers



## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Here are some tail feathers off of a bird that I shot this weekend. I had never seen coloration like this in a pheasant. The rest of the bird looked normal. I have only hunted pheasant for about 5 years, but some other people I was with were kind of stumped too. Could it have been a young bird, or do you think there was some pigmentation issues? Let me know if you have any ideas. All of the pictures below are from the same bird. Sorry about the blood on some feathers, I just got home from out west and was curious what people thought.

http://pheasantfeathers.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?ap=1&a=67b0de21b33200706506


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

You got yourself a pt. Albino, your birds parents probably got jiggy with some gamefarm birds!


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

It was shot near Turtle Lake ND. I wonder if there are any gamefarms around there?


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## strand (Sep 29, 2004)

That's really cool, how did the rest of the bird look.

It's possible that it may have gotten some genetic material from a pen bird, but piebaldness is actually a dominant trait in the animal kingdom it just isn't expressed as often. I have shot a few deer with a lot of white on the legs and pink hooves and seen several pheasants similar to yours that were harvested no where near a game farm.

Interesting.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

As far as I can remember the rest of the bird looked normal. I noticed the tail feathers right away so mainly I looked at those. We hunt from a cabin built by my father in law that has no electricity so I was cleaning them at night using light from the fire and a flashlight, but I didn't notice any other color variations on the bird. I did take some regular film pictures (left my digital in GF) of that bird next to a regular pheasant. I will have to wait and see what shows up on those pictures. That would be neat to get an albino pheasant someday.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Hey guys not trying to push you to answer or anything but it's been a week since anyone has commented on these feathers and I am just curious about them?

The link is located above. Recall that the rest of the rooster looked normal. One guy told me it is kind of like the condition of a piebald deer. Just wondering if it is anything special or if I am making a big deal over nothing or just a young bird. Thanks for reading!!!


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## BenelliBlaster (Mar 17, 2002)

I would say some type of wierd gene expression or color pattern. No pen birds around turtle lake and I havn't seen any birds looking that around so I think you got yourself a interesting/uncommon bird to these parts.


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## Jiffy (Apr 22, 2005)

Dude, he got it out West....LOTS of "pen raised", "tame", ....ect. birds out there. Its got albino blood in it.....pheasant farmers think it is "cool" to breed them that way. It makes the clients think they have a trophy....


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Dude BenelliBlaster is from by where I shot that. Don't you think he would know how many tame birds live around there or whatnot?


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## Jiffy (Apr 22, 2005)

:lol: If that is the case....It could be a mutant!! I though you got it "out West..." my bad!! :lol:


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## strand (Sep 29, 2004)

It's unique and there's nothing else to say about it. My guess is as mentioned above a slight variance in gene expression. The gene for pigmentation was probably inhibited a little when the cell was developing, it could be a number of different things. It may have been a young bird, some pics of the bird itself would make that a little easier. As for pen raised birds, I highly doubt thats the case.

Congrats and I hope you got some pics with it!


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

I got some regular pics on 35 mm of that bird next to another bird. We will have to see how it turns out. I probably won't develop that until I finish the roll. Hopefully they turned out...I took them near evening with a flash.


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