Arizona Pheasant Hunting Guides and Outfitters

Arizona Pheasant: The Arizona pheasant is a beautiful fowl-like game bird. There are about 50 species, and all except the Congo peacock of Africa are native to temperate and tropical Asia. The domestic chicken is descended from the jungle fowl and is technically a pheasant. The pheasant in Arizona is large and stout, with a compact body, short rounded wings, and strong un-feathered legs and a popular game bird with hunting guides and outfitters. It lives mostly on the ground but it can fly, though it is not capable of sustained flight and is normally hunted with hunting dogs, but this is not a necessity during a trip or guide hunt. The game bird roosts in trees, and all species, except the tragopans, nest on the ground. It is omnivorous, but the bulk of this game birds diet is seeds and berries. The plumage of the female, or hen, is drab and brownish. That of the male, or cock, is beautiful highly colored, and iridescent. This large display of colors in many cases will give the Arizona pheasant’s position away allowing the hunter or hunting dog to find it. Many cocks have a long sweeping tail, and some have ornamental plumes and wattles. Like all ornate birds, the cocks give an elaborate courtship display and have a harem of hens.

One of the best known species is the English pheasant, Phasianus colchicus and is another popular game bird. Its scientific name is derived from the Greek place names Phasis and Colchis. It is believed that the Greek Argonauts found the bird along the Phasis River {now Rion} in Colchis, the legendary home of the Golden Fleece, and brought it back to Greece. The Romans are credited with introducing the bird into England. The cock is about 36 inches {91 cm} long, including its 21-inch {53 cm} long tail. The head and neck are dark metallic green and the body plumage is predominantly burnished copper variegated with green, buff, and black. Large red wattles surround its eyes, and there are earlike tufts on the back of its head. All of these colors help hide it from outfitters and guides on hunts for it in the areas that it can be found in the world.

The ring-necked pheasant, P. torquatus, {a native of China as well}, is similar to the English pheasant. This is the most popular game bird to Arizona and hunting guides and outfitters are more then willing to help a sportsman plan out a trip or guided hunt for it. Its most distinctive feature is the white ring around its neck. The body plumage is black-spotted golden buff. The bird found throughout the northern United States including Arizona and into southern Canada is a hybrid of these two species and is properly the English ring-necked pheasant, P. colchicus torquatus. Hunting trips for the ring-neck pheasant are offered in Arizona by many outfitters and guides, but each company should be contacted to find out what they offer with their services before planning any trips to the area.

The most beautiful pheasants are found high in the mountains of eastern Asia. The golden pheasant, Chrysolophus pictus, is fairly common in zoos. The cock has golden-red under parts, green-glossed and black-glossed upperparts, and a golden crest. The Lady Amherst pheasant, C. amherstiae, has a plumage of delicate white, green, black, and blue. The most iridescent and brilliantly colored species are the short-tailed pheasants, or monals. One species, the impeyan pheasant, Lophophorus impejanus, is iridescent blues, greens, and bronzes above, and black below.

The five species of tragopans, or horned pheasants, inhabit the high mountains forest of northern India and China. Some of these are eaten for food and others for sport by the local hunting outfitters and guides in those areas that allow that type of hunt. The tragopan has hornlike protuberances and fleshy wattles on it head; its tail is rather short and rounded. The plumage is beautifully patterned and brightly colored. The best-known species is the crimson tragopan, Tragopan satyra, which is much different then the Arizona pheasant. The cock has a white-spotted orange-carmine plumage, with bright greenish-blue hornlike wattles over the eyes and a blue-barred salmon-pink apron-like wattle on the throat.

The great argus pheasant, Argusianus argus, or Malaysia and Borneo, is not brightly colored; its plumage is mainly brown and gray. The beauty of these birds lies in its inner wing feathers, which are marked with a chain of iridescent eye spots. The feathers are greatly elongated and broadened, and during display they are elevated and angled upward over the bird’s back.

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The pheasant is classified in the order Galliformes, family Phasianidae, subfamily Phasianinae {Old World partridges and pheasants}. Many of the pheasants listed are popular with a hunting outfitter or guide in those areas, but we can only list for those companies in the United States including the state of Arizona and the area of Canada. Please take your time in planning out of your next guided hunt by working out all of the details that are involved with a good pheasant trip. Hunting-Trips-R-Us would also like to ask that you drop us a note letting us know how your experience was with our directory.