Galliformes of the world

[boneaddict]

One of the cheapest pheasants, yet most friendly, easy to raise, and quite frankly entertaining.  Also gorgeous

[boneaddict]

Blue Eared...    these did fairly well raising their own.    Big birds and diggers.   Great for fly tyeing

[boneaddict]

One of my all time favorites.   Even as baby chicks they sit and look up as their natural predator high in the Himalayas are eagles.   As mentioned, also big diggers.   I had a gorgeous set of trios, but my ex wife opened the cages and let them out.   Somewhere out in the Wenas ......

[boneaddict]

A lot of people would cross these with reds to come up with all sorts of colors.   I very much was against that.

[LDennis24]

What kind of Chukar is that Bone? Red legged?

What else can you tell me about the Monal's (Impeyan)?
Do they handle the cold well? What exactly do you guys mean by being diggers? Just that they will build large holes from foraging and dusting like a chicken does? Did they lay very many eggs per season?

[KFhunter]

I keep hearing diggers, they dig under cages? 

Make tunnels? 

Or just destructive on the surface and hard on vegetation?

[boneaddict]

The Impeyans do handle the cold well.   They struggle with heat.  I’ve heard they struggle with humidity as well.  I have the heat but not humidity.  I know some folks use misters to help compensate  and that’s where they struggle with the moisture I think.  I had a pretty nice pen for them, so they did well without that. 

That’s a Barbary Chukar or Partridge.  Nice birds.  Very vocal.

They dig for roots and grubs I suppose, they’ll puddle and nest.   They all move dirt in their pens, but some are worse than others.   The Impeyans and Blue eared can move a lot of dirt.   They’ll dig a hole by the cage wall, dirt will collapse and either a hole opens where they ccan escape or a predator can easily get in.   I worked pretty hard at having planted pens, and yes, some I had trouble with.   

[boneaddict]

None of the rare pheasants lay very many eggs per season.   That’s one reason why they are rare.  They layed more than the Tragopans.   

[boneaddict]

This was one of my favorites, and also one of the hardest to take care of, especially in this climate

[LDennis24]

Yeah the peacock pheasants do some awesome dances! What one is that? I can't help but think of all the awesome native american and tribal dances around the world and how they resemble the mating dances of birds! It's pretty incredible to watch birds of paradise jump around too.

[boneaddict]

Grey Peacock Pheasant. 

[Birdguy]

Great pics Doug, as always! We have raised all you posted but the peacock pheasants. We got our first impeyan egg today!! We have 5 breeding pairs this year so hoping for a great season of fertile eggs. And dirt movers is an understatement! I thought we had fairly level pens....WRONG!!! Those crazy birds dig in the dirt all day every day and it shows! Fun birds, do well in the cold for sure but not in the heat. Folks who try to raise them in the south (and it is few) all have misters set up all around their pens most also have sprinklers on timers to come on and cool roofs and such. They are quite susceptible to the West Nile virus. The us lost about 40% in the early 20teens, was a pretty serious deal.

[LDennis24]

So can you guys tell me where to find some Mikado chicks or Ijima coppers? Koklass' or Blood pheasant? Are any of these available in the NW? Or does anyone have Francolins available?

[boneaddict]

Lol, no, they weren’t easy to find when I had contacts all over.  Spend time on the Googler I guess, and track down leads. 

[boneaddict]

That’s awesome Birdguy!   I didn’t realize you still had birds.   This year would have been a pain in the butt.  We had 16 degrees last night.  I have to admit, all this bird talk and memory lane had me walking around my place looking ....hmmmm I could do a pen here . Lol