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All in the family: A rooster pheasant and some chukar hang out

The nonnative upland bird species don’t usually share the same habitat, but two chukar and a larger cousin, the pheasant, recently were plenty comfortable around each other in a Lander-area driveway.

by Mike Koshmrl 17 minutes agoApril 16, 2026

An evidently curious rooster pheasant strides between two chukar on the edge of a Fremont County driveway. (George Barlow)

Chukar and pheasant have plenty in common.

They’re related, part of the ground-dwelling Phasianidae bird family. And they’re both Eurasian upland bird species that thrived in their respective habitat niches after being introduced to North America: Chukar have taken to the arid, rocky West, while pheasant have proliferated in riparian zones and agricultural country that stretches from the mid-Atlantic to the California coast.

Distribution maps show that, broadly, they do overlap.

But typically, the two species aren’t comrades in the way that George Barlow and Liz Brimmer recently documented in their rural Lander-area driveway.

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A chukar pair that had taken a liking to Barlow and Brimmer’s yard for weeks was joined by an inquisitive, or perhaps indifferent, rooster pheasant. The three colorful Old World birds were basically hanging out, feeding in circles around each other, “for quite a while.”

“They were just comfortable in each other’s presence,” Barlow recalled of the sighting. “Everybody was doing their own thing and marching around. It was fascinating.”

Mike Koshmrl

Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson... More by Mike Koshmrl

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