Golden Pheasant

We headed back home after being frustrated that we didn't even see many birds. While we were parking, we saw a brilliantly colored pheasant walking along the edge of the trees right across from our campsite. Never having seen anything like this before, Lee took countless pictures before the bird disappeared into the underbrush. The bird had drawn quite a crowd of on-lookers from the campground and will likely be a topic of discussion around many campfires for several nights to come.


Mary checked her bird books and found nothing that looked like this vividly colored bird so it was off to the internet she went. After some searching, she found that it was a Red-headed Golden Pheasant from-- get this-- China! It's obviously someone's pet or it escaped from a local aviary or exotic bird retailer around here. No one knew where this particular one came from.