A pheasant is a bird with a long tail. Pheasants are often shot as a sport and then eaten. Pheasant is the flesh of this bird eaten as food. roast pheasant. Any of about 50 species of mostly long-tailed birds in the family Phasianidae (order Galliformes), chiefly Asian but naturalized elsewhere. Most species inhabit open woodlands and brushy fields. All have a hoarse call. The feet and lower legs are unfeathered. Females are inconspicuous. Most males are strikingly coloured and have one or more leg spurs, and some have a fleshy facial ornament. Males sometimes fight to the death for a harem of hens. Male ring-necked or common pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), 35 in. (90 cm) long, have a streaming tail, coppery breast, purplish green neck, and ear tufts; they are widespread in the northern U.S. Japanese green pheasants (P. versicolor) call in concert when an earthquake is imminent
A widely distributed bird (Phasianus colchicus) native to the Old World, the male of which has a long pointed tail, brightly colored plumage, and a white ring around the neck
[ 'fe-z&nt ] (noun.) 13th century. From Old French fesan, from Latin phāsiānus, from Ancient Greek φασιανός (phasianós (órnis)) ("bird of the river Φᾶσις (Phȃsis)" from where, it was supposed, the bird spread to the west).