England is home to some truly stunning gamebirds. They are not just visually striking, but play important roles in our ecosystems. Let’s explore some of the notable species you can find in the countryside, and why they matter. Then we’ll look at not just the ethical issues of hunting, but also why pheasant hunts can cause the increasing problem of flooding.
The Role of Gamebirds in Ecosystems
Gamebirds are not just beautiful birds to admire, but are vital to keep our ecosystems in balance. They are firstly an essential part of nature’s food chain (not hunting but for birds of prey, foxes and stoats). In nature’s web of survival, leaving nature to take care of itself means that foxes eat gamebirds, rabbits and rats – rather than raid bins and hunt for garden chickens.
Despite hunting being legal, all gamebirds do have some protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. This means that birds must not ‘suffer unnecessarily’ (like remain injured) and birds must not be released in certain areas that could impact other wildlife (or release lead shot, under voluntary bans). You can contact National Wildlife Crime Unit (anonymous if preferred) to report any concerns.
Pheasants
Native to Asia, pheasants are beautiful birds known for their croaking call and vivid plumage of shimmmering green, gold and red (the females are less noticable, idea to camouflage when nesting). These birds tend to live in woodlands and field edges, where they can shelter and forage for seeds, grains and insects.
Unfortunately these beautiful birds again are hunted, bred extensively (often in conditions akin to factory farms) so they can be shot on shoots. Often by people who don’t have the experience to shoot properly (meaning many remain injured, or are even collected to be shot again).
The other issue is that massive over-breeding for the shooting industry leads to millions of pheasants being killed in road accidents (which not only endangers native sand lizards, eaten by pheasants). But causes lots of road accidents involving humans too.
Recent reports also say that a lot of game meat like pheasant contains lead shot (only a voluntary ban is in place), which is not good for the environment (abandoned lead shot can harm all kinds of creatures including swans) and obviously not good either for humans to eat.
Grouse
Only found in Britain, the red grouse has reddish-brown feathers and a distinctive call. It’s one of the most recognisable birds of moorlands, and tends to live in upland areas dominated by heather, its main source of food. Grouse like to nibble on young heather shoots, seeds and insects.
Male grouse like to fan out their tails and strutt their stuff to show dominance (a bit like peacocks) and can be found on upland heathlands. Red grouse like to feed on heather and are found on upland heathlands and moorland. There are two species (one native to Britain and the other native to Scandinavia and Alaska). These birds have red bodies, black tails and ‘red eyebrows’. The red grouse is the bird that appears on ‘Famous Grouse’ whisky bottles.
These wary birds take flight quickly, if disturbed. This alas is a bird that is often hunted on grouse shoots. When heather moorlands are actively managed to increase red grouse populations, it removes peat bogs (home to endangered wildlife) and this in turn (by burning heather moorland) is linked to increased floods. More on this below.
Partridges
England has two species of partridge (and neither of them live in pear trees!) Grey partridges are native to Britain with charming grey and orange feathers, and like to live on arable farmland (numbers have greatly declined, making them a conservation issue).
Red-legged partridges are not native (they come from mainland Europe), but have settled well in our open scrub and farmlands, noticed for its bright red beak and pink-red legs.
Despite their names, grey partridges have orange faces and black horse-shoe patches on their bellies. This bird layers the largest number of eggs of any bird – up to 19!
Grey partridges are classified as Red as a bird of conservation concern. If disturbed, it prefers to run than fly, but will fly (low to the ground) if necessary.
Woodcocks
Woodcocks are shy and elusive birds, rarely seen by everyday birdwatchers. These ground-dwelling birds have a mottled brown appearance, to blend seamlessly into the forest floor. These migrant birds arrive in England during winter, journeying from the icy forests of Scandinavia and Russia. Again these beautiful birds are sadly hunted widely.
This nocturnal beautiful birds (with very long beaks) are listed as Red (highly threatened) of conservation concern, leading to petitions to government, asking for them to be excluded from hunting. They spend days days safely tucked away in forest undergrowth, taking off in zig-zag flight when threatened. This bird sadly has not been treated well in history (its feathers used to be used, to draw the gold stripe on Rolls Royce cars).
Quails
Quails are migrant birds, who travel to Africa for winter, then return to England to breed in late spring. These birds spend most of their time hidden in grass or cereal fields, preferring to run through thick vegetation, than fly. These small round birds have dark and gold marks on brown backgrounds, males recognised by their black throats. They are common in England (and southern Scotland) but rare in Northern Ireland.
Capercaillies
These large gamebirds are around the size of turkeys, with yellow bills and red marks above their eyes (smaller females are mostly brown). They gather in woodland clearings to parade their magnificent tail feathers, and make strange gulping clicking sounds, to compete for females.
Loss of woodland habitat led to this beautiful bird becoming extinct in the mid 18th century, and the birds were reintroduced from Sweden around 100 years later. They are now facing extinction for the second time. Today they only tend to be found in northern Scottish pine forests, where they feed on berries and conifer tree buds and shoots.
Ptarmigans
Ptarmigans are also only found in Scotland (in the mountains) and turn rock-grey in summer and snow-white in winter, making them masters of disguise. These plump birds are a little larger than grey partridges, and eat seeds, berries, nuts and leaves (juveniles also eat invertebrates).
Why Pheasant Shoots Cause Floods
Flooding is more common these days, but not just caused by rain and rivers bursting banks. It’s caused by removing trees, climate change, outdated building techniques, removing peat and shooting pheasants. Yet an area the size of London is taken over in England for private grouse shoots, which is linked to flooding .
This is because land with bogs (peat etc) is flattened, by burning heather to provide breeding habitats. This means bogs are not able to absorb rain. But as most pheasant shoots are on private estates, nobody can see.
Overbreeding for the pheasant industry leads to millions (with no road sense) being killed on our roads each year. League Against Cruel Sports campaigns against caged breeding, as most pheasants raised to be shot for food or ‘sport’ are housed in conditions similar to battery-farmed chickens. And most hunters are not good shots, so many birds are injured, rather than killed outright.
Over-breeding also leads to impacts on our ecosystems (they eat sand lizards and baby adders, so over-breeding leads to too many being eaten). Some gamekeepers also set traps to target native predators like foxes and stoats, which in turn can trap hares and badgers (or even domestic dogs).
Learn more in Mark Avery’s book Conflict in the Uplands. Looking at the conflict between grouse shooting and nature conservation, this multi-million pound business dominates the hills of the Pennines, North Yorkshire Moors, Cheviots and Scotland. And backed by powerful lobbyists, to prevent change even though it’s wrecking the hills and impacting habitats of mountain hares and hen harriers.
He also details his campaign with Chris Packham to gain support to ban grouse shooting, which came to light during the devastating floods of 2015, showing how they were all linked.
The Return of the Grey Partridge is the story of how wildlife was restored to an estate in West Sussex, prompted by a collapse in numbers of grey partridges. Following the estate through the seasons of one year, the book shows how fields are divided up with hedgerows and trees, beetle banks are built across fields, and land is manured (rather than fed artificial fertilisers) and returned to pasture.
A good book on how proper farming methods restores wildlife, but the estate only restored habitats for grey pheasants in order to shoot them. Recently a snare trapped a domestic dog.
