Common Pheasant

(Phasianus colchicus)

Category of conservation concern (IUCN, 2020) – Least Concern

Population size: 6 000 – 10 000 pairs

The present review concerns the species in general, represented by a population of hybrid specimens obtained from crossbreeding with the autochthonic for the country Colchicus pheasant (Ph.c.colchicus) for more than 110 years. The pure form of the species is considered extinct.

Distribution pattern

Widespread in the lower parts of the country – along the Danube, in the Danubian Plain, Ludogorie, Dobrudja, the Tundzha River valley and adjacent areas, the Thracian Plain, the Black Sea coast and some parts of Strandzha, Sredna Gora, Sofia Valley, etc.

Comparative distribution of the species compared to the first breeding birds atlas (Iankov, 2007): Breeding locality until 2007 | Breeding locality until 2007, confirmed after 2015 – | New breeding locality after 2015. – The breeding localities after 2015 are identified on a base of raw data from smartbirds.org.

Habitats

Breeds in mixed deciduous forests along river banks, flooded shrubs and reeds, meadows, forest edges, valleys, mainly in temperate heath and scrub; humid grassland and tall herb communities; in alluvial and riverine forests and brush and in broad-leaved deciduous forests, often in smaller valleys with rich mosaic vegetation along rivers and other wetlands; in bogs and marshes – in water fringe vegetation, as well as in strips of trees, shrubs and mosaics of them, less often in orchards, tree and shrub plantations or in large public parks and gardens in the outskirts of settlements with a predominance of trees and shrubs .

Trends in population changes for the period 2013-2020

Not analysed

Threats

Not analysed