Been a heavy day (with an early start tomorrow) so a very brief blog entry :- on way home from Colchester via the back lanes, spotted this fellow in a field on our right. This area throws up the very occasional BLACK cock pheasant. I read an explanation of this phenomena once - don't remember the details but the word 'melanin' came into it. This chap was a large, handsome cock bird,. It's a bit difficult to describe but under the black it was possible to see the markings and colours of his full, breeding plumage. You'll probably get a better idea by enlarging the photo.
Good night all.
melanistic :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Compostwoman. I've just looked it up (as I should have done before trusting to memory). You are quite right :-
ReplyDeletemelanistic - the adjective, meaning of dark pigmentation, from melanin -the dark pigmentation in skin, hair, etc.
Thanks again - Mike.
We get a lot around here, as well as the more usually hued pheasants - only ever seen cock pheasants in the dark version though - no idea what a hen would look like?
ReplyDeleteFirst time I saw one I wondered what on earth it could be :-)
Yes, we get, as I said, the occasional black cock pheasant, but I can't ever recall seeing a black (or even blackish) hen.
ReplyDeleteWe also had a small warren of rabbits nearby, which also produced the occasional black one; but we've not seen one in the last year or so. In fact I'm not sure that the warren exists now - lot of mixy in the area again.