Ya, thats what marco said. Hate to say it, but that crosses a barrier for me. I have free time now and then. Usually while cooking, on the toilet or waiting for people at work. I like to post here during such sacred times. Cause i can [barely] type. But opening new accounts on other websites is my line, sorry! Noting that i am not a tech savvy person to begin with. So pics it is then 
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Tried to get some new pics, but we try to keep them anxious. So pics werent happening easily, apologies. Probably next week once wing .feathers are a bit bigger, will inspect them and take better pics then.
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Definitely what I would call a gamebird. Partridge, quail or pheasant type bird.
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Ya, for sure! Cheers:)
Any thoughts on quail vs pheasant? That seems to be the 2 options.
As an aside, saw this guy the other day, same farm. Looks like the same family. Any ideas? Seems quail like to me, do they normally have rust colored bellies?
Female ring-necked pheasant?
No idea what the pheasants look like while young, but kind of doubt it. We have a solid 20 plus adult pairs at this farm, and they look quite different. Granted i only recognize the adults. But their body shape seems like comparing a jet fighter with a cartoon hellicopter haha. Is that what they look like when young?
I guess it is smaller than I thought!
Pic above is about the size of those huge softballs. Or, those coconuts with everything shaved off and just a little white ball. Like a half pigeon.
The adult pheasants are a good 10x bigger in volume. Probably 3x taller and longer. Ish
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Well, here are pages 46 & 47 regarding pheasants in Taiwan.
@Explant - Do you have pheasant on your farm? Which type? I’ve never seen nor heard any calling in the wild. I’m very familiar with the Ring-necked Pheasant as that’s what we hunt in Eastern Washington State. They have a wonderful call. I’d love to see the Mikado Pheasant in the wild some day.
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Cheers for that info! I personally hce always thought these were ringneck pheasants from day one. But thats mostly because we have LOADS on this farm. I spent the year 2 years back making them habitat before i knew how common and destructive they are haha. Regardless, native speces get a pass on our farms, regardless of losses.
That all said i have 3 friends telling me quail. None are bird people but all are “naturalists” and 1 has seen the birds in person to check if i am feeding them right. We disagree on species though. I still think pheasant. So we have drinks wagered haha. I think i should buy that book. I need to up my bird game, clearly. There are numerous species i would like to create habitat for ,and have space to accomodate. just hasnt happened as fast as i would of liked. This particular farm we have over an acre dedicated for wild flora/fauna and “highways” encircluing each fen (1/4) acre plot to allow at least the most basic of buffers in our human centric sellfishness
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Inspection day today. They can semi fly now. Both got out and had to chase them around haha . Neighbours have loads of cats they dont take care of.
Didnt see any bumps bruises, parasites etc so seems good so far.
Some pics for referrence.
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I admire your dedication. Keep up the good work.
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Cheers . But to be clear i gave my wife 2 options the day we killed their nest. Sounds cruel, but a decision was needed and should be realistic…
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We take care of them and release. Or,
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I take them to the back and end it.
I wouldnt offer up option 2 if they werent already near death of course. anyway wife chose option 1 (in hidden tears, so i was all in obviously haha) and we do it that way. Its not difficult, just a decent chunk of time taken away from work. If that is acceptable, then do it.
They seem pretty healthy now. Saw 2 pheasant families today at the farm and the young ones were flying in brief bursts behind the adult. So i still think these are pheasants lol.
As an aside. Was walking along the road we are clearin.now and saw this broken egg. My phone camera isnt great, but it was blue. Like north american robin egg blue, much smaller though. And candidates you gyys can thunk of? Looks like it was messed up and killed by our machines given the unusual red/brown smear. I get the feelin it may be a grass nester (above ground) but that is really just a wild guess.
I would probably try to save the young birds as well…only because I am sure my farm land was used for ground nesting before I arrived. Now only nesting in the trees we planted.
The egg you photographed looks like a the size of a virio egg I saw on our land. But don’t remember having a blue hue. I say “virio” as do not know the actual name for the bird type here.
It’s been about 26 days since your last report.
I’m very curious to know if you found out exactly what type of gamebird they are.
Update, please.
This evening as I was walking my dogs, they came upon a covey of baby Bamboo Partridges and luckily my dogs were both on a lead, so I was able to prevent the dogs from killing the chicks.
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Wow, that’s funny. We just released them today and was trying to upload pics earlier but my phone went some kind of crazy. Going to try again in a bit.
A few days ago we had some AG gov researchers come to discuss various bug projects at one of the farms. i always love picking their brains some smart cookies. Happens one of their team is a bird guy so i showed him these 2. According to him, for sure a pheasant.
They got pretty big, i couldnt justify keeping them anymore on our WAY too small a jail! it started having an abnormal cruelty vibe. I was waiting til they could fly decently. Today i put the cage in the back of the truck with a light and closed the canopy and watched them. Flying was pretty strong, albeit in a still fairly small space. So we decided to take them to a farm that we havent seen any ferral cats at and let them go. Wife was sad but happy. Was a really nice afternoon. She has now become a bird lover (all jokes aside…) and doesnt stop talking about hearing birds calling. Hope they do well! Will post pics later
When pics are up, be honest. Was it too early to release? I feel ok, but good to know the truth in case there is a next time.
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Aww dammit. Just went through pics with the wife. Now i am getting emotional, jeesh… The cute little buggers!!
Quick recap with the last being todays release keep wondering if it was too early…
Last day (today)
An goodbye buddy
We used a 3 phase tooth click sound when syringe feeding them from the beginning. And continued this whenever giving water or food. I really want to avoid getting them used to people ,but it is inevitable living outside our living room. Everytime machines were running water spraying, storms the past month e tc. The 3 click calmed them right down. Was fascinating to watch. They eventually started immitating the 3 clicks when they spilled their water dish over. We would fill and all good. When they wake up at 430 in morning and start calling for water, we would lay in bed, unammused to be honest, and do the 3 click and they would calm right down till we did the zombie walk and filled their dish.Quite intelligent little fellas considering how young they are!
Hope to see them again soon in the fields. Now when we curse at them for destroying crops it will be from a place of love lol.
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Yep. Pheasant. Nice.
They look old enough to survive on their own. However their biggest challenge will be predators such as eagles, hawks, owls, cats, dogs, etc.
When I was a kid, I would routinely buy pheasant chicks from the state game farm, raise them and then release on our land. The release date is approximately at the age of 8 weeks. They were about the same size and age when we did our releases.
You did well. Thanks for sharing.
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Cheers for that! I sure hope so. To be honest, my concern on survival is about they can take care of themselves. We tested them over the weeks on flying so we feel they can escape. Feeding,
they seemed capable. I would probably cry if i saw them starved (my fault), poisoned (didnt protect "my"land well enough, my fault) etc. I wouldnt bat an eyelash if a snake/eagle/owl etc ate them, thats natural.
Cats are a huge issue now. As they kill everything that seems fun for them. I have farms completely void of lizards, frogs, ground dwelling birds etc now. The hardest part is the kind hearted people not being realistic/pragmatic at all and disregarding biology/ecology.
Touch wood these survive if they dont, i hope their demise is from something natural like a native species eating. Being a dumb self centered human, i will still look at every pheasant there in the future as if they are these cute babies my wife decided to not let me kill
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Oh those dreaded cats. Near my farm land I have seen a cat just about to enter the gate at his home with a pheasant in his mouth. They are everywhere around my land. They frequently show up at night (and even in the daytime) to walk around outside our house. I have trapped three of them and moved them far away. A neighbor about a kilometer away forgot to bring inside a box of young chickens…at night a cat tore off the heads of all 12. The fluffy, white rabbit I saved from being run over…well, I left him outside and 7 hours later found him killed by a cat. The wild dogs come and go…but these damn cats never leave as they live nearby.
When I first moved to the farm land there was a male Chinese pheasant who ruled this patch of ground. Every morning he stood on top of a mound of dirt at our back piece of land and crowed loudly to let the other males know this area was his. He was a stud. I saw him with 5 females one time. Once he and his group of females were slowly eating and walking about 20 yards from me. Was certainly nice to see them so closely. Well, 4 years later and hardly any Chinese pheasants to be seen anymore around my land.
Thanks for your hard work to save those birds.
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