Pheasantly surprised near Ravenshoe

Sightings of local rarities (those asterisked on the club's official Species List and any species not listed. That includes Paradise Parrots!!!) Post your non-local rare or unusual sightings here too.

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Mick Atzeni
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Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:08 pm

Pheasantly surprised near Ravenshoe

Post by Mick Atzeni »

I spent last week visiting dairy farms on the Atherton Tableland and on Wednesday (27/5/2009) picked up a lifer I didn't even realise existed in those parts - Common (Ring-necked) Pheasant. My QPIF colleague and I spotted a glorious male on the roadside near Carrick Rd along the Old Palmerston Highway east of Ravenshoe. It then flew into the adjoining paddock and walked eventually out of sight over a rise but not before we took a couple of photos for the record.

I contacted local bird guide Alan Gillanders who informed me there is a feral population near Ravenshoe. A subsequent search on birding-aus confirms that Common Pheasants have been in the Tumoulin area northwest of Ravenshoe for many years. Strange how this feral population is not mentioned in field guides.

.://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/bir ... 00320.html

I know they're an exotic! - but quite an impressive bird - the male, when you've never seen one before, and especially when it's the last thing you were expecting to see, driving around the Atherton Tableland.

Cheers
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