This is a bird that I already got a little while ago, though I only found females, whose plumage is not nearly as impressive as the males’. Unfortunately, while I spotted and photographed a male, it was so late and dark that a good, clear photo wasn’t possible. I was out in the town checking out a new road constructed through the area when I spotted the pheasant flying behind an embankment bordering on some homes situated about 20 feet lower than the street level. At first glance, I thought it was a crow or some other common bird, but for the second I saw it, the long tail was evident enough to catch my interest. When I came down to where it had settled, I saw it was indeed a male Japanese Pheasant (キジ).

On the one hand, this bird didn’t scare easily. A lot of birds will fly off when they see that you’re looking at them and get within twenty or thirty meters of them. This one allowed me to get within about five meters–but it didn’t give me a good view. Apparently, the bird has good hiding instincts. As long as it was aware that I was nearby, it ducked down and huddled in the tall grass, ergo the obstructed images below. I was, at least, able to get close enough to use my camera’s flash; Photoshop brought the images the rest of the way to clarity.

Unable to get good lighting without the flash, and since the flash kept scaring the bird into hiding, I tried taking a movie of it. The light is not so great, but the bird did stop hiding and moved around some. In a way, you can see it better. The image below is linked to the MP4 movie, 1.9MB, 44 sec. Right-click the image to download the movie to watch it from your desktop.