Ring-necked Pheasant

Ring-necked pheasants are Asian transplants, introduced widely enough as a game bird that most people assume they're native. Roosters aren't hard to spot — iridescent copper-and-green plumage, a fleshy red facial wattle, and, in most naturalized populations, the white neck ring that gives the species its name. Hens skip all of that for mottled brown camouflage suited to sitting still on open ground. The birds established in North America trace back to a hybrid mix of several Asian and European subspecies rather than one pure bloodline. Where they thrive has less to do with native rangeland than with farm country — cultivated grain fields, hedgerows, and grassy fencelines are what actually drive their numbers.