re: Bird ID

I hope not too, but I’d say I did

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There is no reason Pheasant couldn't thrive in Georgia and most of the south. Probably not a great idea to introduce them in huntable numbers because of the degradation of quail habitat and they'd use the same cover and the same food sources (they eat less protein than quail). They thrive in similar environments in California and thrive in the desert, although never far from water, in New Mexico. every pheasant population in the US was introduced at some point....they are associated with areas where lots of grain is grown but they can and do thrive in areas with enough natural vegetation like New Mexico....as many game farms as there are in Georgia you'd think they would've introduced themselves....

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There was a hunting club in south Louisiana that pen raised pheasant. I asked if they manage to make it off the premises and the manager said they did and could be found for a while in the area. But he said for some reason they didn't not survive in the wild long term.
And I saw a video perhaps linked to this board of a pheasant hunt south of the California/Arizona border in Mexico. The poster said it was exceptional hunting and that the pheasant were obviously introduced but were wild. I don't know why it can't work in south Louisiana. There was a season for pheasant as recently as about ten years ago in a few counties in SE Texas basically surrounding the outer Houston area. But there is no longer a season in those counties.
Excuse likely would be fire ants. It's the same reason people say quail are now scarce to non-existent in parts of East and SE Texas now. That and habitat destruction.

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I would love to see a 14-16" quail.

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In my opinion, a quail jumping up and flying from brush always looks a lot bigger than it really is. I will bet that's what he saw.

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I saw a video perhaps linked to this board of a pheasant hunt south of the California/Arizona border in Mexico. The poster said it was exceptional hunting and that the pheasant were obviously introduced but were wild. I don't know why it can't work in south Louisiana.

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I don't know why it can't work in south Louisiana.

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I know why. I have seen coonasses almost get in wrecks to catch a red eared slider turtle crossing the road to put in a soup. Imagine if a pheasant was crossing the road?

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Excuse likely would be fire ants. I

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I hadn't thought about fire ants but I do know I have read and heard where they were very detrimental to quail populations. It makes sense that they'd be harmful to any ground nesting bird, which I assume pheasant are.

I can't think of any sort of predator in Georgia that isn't also present in New Mexico that would be problematic for pheasant. The desert is crawling with raccons near water...they are small but there's a lot of them....plus there are all sorts of small fur bearers in New Mexico that we don't have in Georgia that no doubt prey on Pheasant yet the Pheasants persist. There isn't much of a season for them and almost no interest in hunting them, about 4 days right about the middle of December, but the lack of interest has more to do with the incredible quail hunting that is available that does not involve bushwhacking your way through salt cedars rooted in the slickest bottomless mud...including gulf coast and se atlantic coast mud...ever known to man.

Almost all of the pheasant in Washington are released birds...there is some natural reproduction but they aren't capable of supporting the popularity of hunting here without supplementing them. They do a pretty good job with flight conditioning them because it is hard to tell the difference between a released bird after a couple of weeks and one that was born wild.

Pheasant can’t reproduce viable eggs without manganese or Barium and I don’t think that’s present in the south East I could be wrong I have been before