Image ID 107339 Photographic Services & Permissions

Eastern Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant and subspecies (Phasianus colchicus) sspp.
Chromolithograph after H. Jones
From: William Beebe, A Monograph of the Pheasants. Vol. 3 of 4 (London: Witherby & Co., for the New York Zoological Society, 1918–22)
NYPL, General Research Division

Ring-necked Pheasants were first brought to New York State from Asia in the 1890s for the benefit of hunters. Since then, as new stocks of birds from different locales were released, various subspecies intermingled. Thus, the birds depicted here differ in various details from pheasants now seen occasionally in several New York City parks.

A Monograph of the Pheasants has been hailed as "perhaps the greatest ornithological work of the present century." William Beebe (1877–1962), Curator of Birds at the Bronx Zoo and a prolific author of natural history and travel literature, based his text on extensive field work in Asia and on research in natural history museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and New York.

Check out the sighting log to record your interaction with some of the native New York City wildlife, such as the Ring-necked Pheasant, featured in Urban Neighbors. You may also browse the sighting log by animal, borough, park or natural area, and/or habitat to view a sighting you have submitted or to read others’ observations.