The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native to Asia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant". It has the smallest known genome of all living amniotes, only 0.97pg (970 million base pairs).

It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The Common Pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially farmed for this purpose. "Ring-necked Pheasant" is a collective name for a number of subspecies and their crossbreeds. These were commonly used for introduction purposes, and today the Ring-necked Pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three US state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. License