Conserving Europe's One True Pheasant

The Nestos Delta in Greece harbours the last true wild European population of common pheasant, the black-necked. A project has been launched to save them

- Richard Carden

In the north-east of mainland Greece, on the border I between the provinces of Macedonia and Thrace, the River Nestos flows out into the Thracian Gulf opposite the island of Thasos. It has wound down from the high (just short of 2,000 metres) ridge of the Rhodope Mountains that separate Greece from Bulgaria, through foothills and across farmland, to its wet, wooded delta. This small cross-section of habitats harbours an unusually rich mix of galliformes – birds of the pheasant family. Seven or maybe eight species can be found here, including capercaillie and hazel grouse – both at the southern limit of their range – chukar and rock partridge.

The World Pheasant Association (WPA) has just launched a conservation project in the Nestos Delta, in partnership with the Hunting Federation of Macedonia and Thrace (KOMATH) and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). The project agreement was signed in Thessaloniki last December; its aim is to conserve a perilously small population of the black-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus colchicus), a sub-species of the common pheasant. With other much more unusual species in the area, why focus on the common pheasant?

The black-necked are common pheasants of the type that shows no white neck ring. The common pheasant is found from the far east of China all across Asia to the Caucasus and the Black Sea in the west, with variations in plumage from one area to another across this vast range. Ring-necked are typical in the east; the black-necked occurs in the western part of the range, in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Jean Delacour, in his classic work The Pheasants of the World, recognised 31 subspecies of our familiar game pheasant.