Bird landed on head... pheasant?

littlebug

A bird landed on my mother's head yesterday morning. It was quite big as she actually thought it was a hand on her head and was one of us trying to scare her! She looked up as it flew off and thought it was a pheasant! It was large and brownish anyway. It didn't make any noise. Why would a pheasant (or otherwise) do that? Trying to grab some of her messy hair for nesting?:D
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ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Haven't a clue what it could have been, but a Pheasant would certainly have made plenty of noise in that situation.

Roen

Plus the facts that pheasants don't really fly that much, they're more a ground bird that take off and fly short distances when alarmed. If one landed on your mums head I think she'd know about it. It would have given her a nice clatter if it was a pheasant.
Females are plain brown though, but distinctive nonetheless. Males are much more easily recognised.

littlebug

Abraham Powerful Snowstorm wrote:

Haven't a clue what it could have been, but a Pheasant would certainly have made plenty of noise in that situation.

I thought that... but she was adamant that it wasn't just a crow and she believed it was the size and colour of a pheasant. I'm guessing that a crow that close would seem a lot bigger than ususal though.
Thanks

FranknFurter

Any chance it might have been some kind of parrot or parakeet?
Cockatiels can be everything from snow white to dark grey, if it was tame enough to land on her head it might have been somones escaped pet.
People often let their birds stay on their shoulders and head.
Keep an eye out for local posters etc. And for it, it might well still be close by.

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macfran

Could it have been a sparrow hawk or some other bird of prey that escaped from captivity and was used to people. The reason I ask this is because earlier in the summer we had a hawk attempting to catch birds and he was not very successful, he had'nt a clue ( we have numerous feeders and can have fifty + around at the same time) Have witnessed the hawk and the buzzard feeding here and their movement is so fast and quiet and then to watch this poor bird flapping awkwardly around we assumed that he was either ill or was used to being fed. Poor thing we found him dead about a week later probably starved to death.

littlebug

we're not too far from Ashford Castle which has a school of falconry so an escaped bird of prey could be a possibility.

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ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I think she would have felt the sharp talons if it had been a bird of prey. Normal bird claws can be sharp enough - talons are a different story.