Flightless Bird Query.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Its the tail that's the striking thing, its horizontal with about two or four feathers not fanned but straight and neat.
Never seen anything like it.

[rjb]

Could it be a Great Bustard? They bred some on Salisbury Plain?

https://goo.gl/images/iq9Ys0

They can fly

Al

There was one hanging around the litter bins at Stonehenge on my last visit in the summer. Near the stones not the visitor centre. And it was a big bird.

[gaz]

... disappeared in to hole ...

Oozlum bird.

[Ruadh495]

That description sounds like a female pheasant to me. The tail is right, two long straight plumes, and they do have plumage that looks a lot like a bird of prey (especially when they've been squashed).

[Ben@Forest]

If it looks a lot like a female pheasant but isn't it could be a (female) golden pheasant. They do have very straight (though not necessarily erect) tails. What's more owners of ornamental birds or estates where they are trying to create a bit of colour do breed or buy them. If you see a male it's unmistakable, not so for the rather more drab female I'm afraid.

[Vorpal]

An escaped turkey?

They are bigger that a pheasant, and can have a wide variety of colours between dark brown and white. The breeds that are close to the wild species are dark brown and only a little bigger than a pheasant. Domestic ones can be twice as big and are usually lighter in colour, or even white. The males also tend to have large, red snoods (that bit of flesh hanging down from a turkeys face), which may not be as obvious on the turkeys that are bred closer to their wild brethren.

They walk and run just like chickens, only they can go a bit faster. They can fly, too, but not very well, and they don't usually fly more than a couple of metres.

They're farmed in the UK, so there are likely to be some escapees around here and there.

[Vorpal]

Hi,
Its the tail that's the striking thing, its horizontal with about two or four feathers not fanned but straight and neat.
Never seen anything like it.

Could it be a peacock that lost its display feathers? They do that this time of year. It can leave a tail like you describe. Some also lose the crest on top of their heads, so they don't really look like peacocks, anymo0re, except for the irridescent blue/green on their necks.

[mnichols]

I don't want to hijack the post - at worse it's a tangent rather than a hijack, but it's always puzzled me why we don't have wild chickens

Much of our wildlife and birds are escaped captive animals that have bred. Chickens are very numerous, and it would only take one fence to be down on one farm at one time for enough to get out to form a breeding population. They can clearly survive our climate, so why no wild chickens?

[Grarea]

I don't want to hijack the post - at worse it's a tangent rather than a hijack, but it's always puzzled me why we don't have wild chickens

Much of our wildlife and birds are escaped captive animals that have bred. Chickens are very numerous, and it would only take one fence to be down on one farm at one time for enough to get out to form a breeding population. They can clearly survive our climate, so why no wild chickens?

Foxes?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Sounds like a good idea............................just carry a bat on your way home at the weekend.........of a fishing net and scoop one up

[Vorpal]

I don't want to hijack the post - at worse it's a tangent rather than a hijack, but it's always puzzled me why we don't have wild chickens

Much of our wildlife and birds are escaped captive animals that have bred. Chickens are very numerous, and it would only take one fence to be down on one farm at one time for enough to get out to form a breeding population. They can clearly survive our climate, so why no wild chickens?

I've seen what I assumed were wild or escaped chickens in Suffolk. I suppose that they don't last long in the wild, though.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Out tomorrow so I will have camera ready

[Ruadh495]

I don't want to hijack the post - at worse it's a tangent rather than a hijack, but it's always puzzled me why we don't have wild chickens

Much of our wildlife and birds are escaped captive animals that have bred. Chickens are very numerous, and it would only take one fence to be down on one farm at one time for enough to get out to form a breeding population. They can clearly survive our climate, so why no wild chickens?

Interesting question. It's quite common to see loose chickens in the road, but I suspect they "escape" back in again at night. Chickens appear to return to their home roost even if set at liberty (like pigeons). As a result it's quite common for them to be left unconfined during the day, without unacceptable losses. Perhaps domestic chickens are so far removed from their wild ancestor (an Asiatic Jungle Fowl) that they can't survive away from humans. Domestic chickens live in flocks of females with sometimes a single male, so to form a viable population several whole flocks would need to escape, including the uncommon males.

Horses and dogs are equally or more domesticated and both of those can form feral populations. Neither survives feral in for long in populated areas though (unlike cats) so perhaps that's the answer; feral chickens can't survive predation by humans.

[cycleruk]

Have you considered one of the "crake" family - Corn Crake ?

[reohn2]

Walks and runs but that's it, disappeared in to hole in hedge

was it followed by a coyote?

Who dropped an anvil on its own head.

I'm going for adolescent Pheasant or hen Pheasant