BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Pheasant

PHEASANT
Phasianus colchicus

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: not listed (introduced)

Long-term trend

England: moderate increase

Distribution maps

Maps and statistics from British and Irish
atlases can be viewed here.

Status summary

Pheasants have increased steadily in abundance since the mid 1960s, although BBS data suggest stability or decrease in Scotland since 1994. During 1968-88, a period when the total biomass of birds in Britain fell by an estimated 10%, it can be inferred from CBC data that Pheasant biomass rose by about 2500 tonnes - more than ten times the increase in any other species (Dolton & Brooke 1999). Numbers of this introduced gamebird are determined principally by releases for shooting (Marchant et al. 1990). The Game Conservancy Trust estimates that about 20-22 million birds are released in Britain each autumn, with more than two million of these surviving until spring.

Table of population changes for Pheasant

Source Period
(yrs) Years Plots
(n) Change
(%) Lower
limit Upper
limit Alert Comment

CBC/BBS England 35 1967-2002 348 74 37 154

25 1977-2002 451 66 40 113

10 1992-2002 959 21 10 31

5 1997-2002 1271 19 15 26

BBS UK 9 1994-2003 1262 33 26 39

BBS England 9 1994-2003 1069 41 34 49

BBS Scotland 9 1994-2003 99 -5 -22 16

BBS Wales 9 1994-2003 66 27 1 60

Productivity information is not currently available for this species


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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Coombes, R.H., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2005) Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2004. BTO Research Report No. 385. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 18 January, 2006