The elegant beauty of ringneck pheasant feathers offers a unique opportunity to infuse natural elements into home decor, transforming spaces with rich colors and intricate patterns. From rustic accents to sophisticated arrangements, these versatile feathers can add a touch of warmth, texture, and personality to any room, creating a captivating ambiance that celebrates the beauty of nature.
Colors
The feathers of male ring-necked pheasants display vibrant, iridescent hues of green and gold. Hens, conversely, feature earthy tones of mottled tan and brown feathers.
These gorgeous feathers are used in millinery for hats, fashion, Aztec dancers, and fly tying. You’ll also find them in home decor, birdcages and other accessories. There’s probably no other feather type with more uses for the fly tyer than the ring-necked pheasant.
For the uninitiated, the ring-necked pheasant is a large chicken-like bird with a long tail, small head, and chubby body. It’s larger than an American crow but smaller than a wild turkey. They’re not migratory, so they can’t travel great distances. Instead, they’re opportunistic feeders that enjoy grains, seeds, roots, berries, snails, earthworms, and young green shoots. Their diet varies by season, though.
Texture
The slender natural brown and black feathers of ringneck pheasant feathers are a popular choice for millinery, costume design and other creative applications. These beautiful feathers are great for hats, dresses, centerpieces and bouquets. They are also very useful for feather trims, arts & crafts projects and fly tying.
Male pheasants have vivid plumage with iridescent hues with green, blue and red highlights. They can evoke a regal disposition or add a bohemian feel to any arrangement. On the other hand, Hen pheasants are more muted with earthy hues like brown and tan.
Owen Nickerson Denny introduced The Ringneck pheasant to Oregon in 1881. This exotic species thrived in the United States, which is not a typical response to an alien species being introduced to a new environment. The Ringneck pheasant is widely hunted across the state of Wisconsin. This is due to its abundant grassland, marshlands and uncut farm fields that provide the birds with food and a good habitat.
Patterns
The male ringneck pheasant feather has become an icon of fly tying and is a staple in many patterns, from nymph bodies to wings and wing cases. The pheasant tail can also be dyed and makes for an excellent substitute for other rare feathers like Toucan and Indian Crow. The rump feathers, short and fluffy marabou-type feathers, can be used as a substitute for spey hackle.
These perfectly matched decorative feathers are often dyed in various colors to create hats, feather combs, and complete ornate masks and costumes. The feathers can be left in their subtle brown-copper-bronze iridescent hue or dyed with black, red, green and more.
Unlike most exotic species that cause ecological havoc when introduced to a new environment, anglers and people highly welcome and admire the Ringneck Pheasant. It is a perfect example of the positive effects of human intervention in nature.
Sizes
These slender feathers make great accents for headgear, costumes and tying flies. They look wonderful in a vase or filled with wheat, bayou grass, or dried leaves.
Ringneck pheasant feathers are also a staple of fly tying. They are often used for wing cases, tails and legs on trout and steelhead flies. They are especially useful for imitating mayfly nymph bodies, wings and wing cases. They are also a main ingredient in the classic Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail nymph, one of the most simple and effective nymph patterns ever created.
The wing and tail feathers can also be cut up to produce various shapes, such as scales or loose fans. In addition, the rump feathers are often used as a substitute for spey hackle on streamer patterns. These short feathers are also ideal for tying pheasant hopper and other wet flies that require black haille. The feathers are very durable when tied in at the butt and then wound around the hook shank.
