Dark Green-Black Melanistic Mutant Pheasant

About the Dark Green-Black Melanistic Mutant Pheasant

The dark green-black plumage is this pheasant's whole identity: cocks are near-uniformly dark, glossed with an iridescent greenish-blue (and shifting violet) sheen that comes from feather microstructure rather than pigment, while hens are a duller greenish-black. A colour mutation of the Common Pheasant first noted in the Victorian British countryside, it breeds true and is hardy. Reared as a striking game and ornamental bird, it survives and reproduces notably well after release into the wild.