pheasant with 3 beaks.

[Blue400]

During a pheasant shoot at Corwin in Wales at the back end of the season this year, the gun next to me shot a cock pheasant that had 2 upper beaks and a normal lower beak! I have seen some strange things this year. How unusual is this in birds in general.
atb blue.

 

[bobt]

its a result of the birds being bitted,
if not removed the beak splits,

 

[Blue400]

I have seen pheasants with a twisted beaks because of the peck rings, but never like this .
atb blue.

 

[bobt]

we get them from the adjoining shoot,
some still have the bit in, usually the very thin ones,

 

[Blue400]

This was a fat little flutter, probably due to the bit coming out.
atb blue.

 

[DAThornley]

bet it was eating twice the amount of the others, never seen it before good job you got a photo

 

[AllThingsShooting]

Nice - interesting shot

 

[Chris Rob]

One from our shoot the season before last, only one we've ever come across.

 

[Blue400]

With the amount of pheasants shot every year you would think it would be more common if it was caused only by the peck rings being left in place! or is it just ignored as an oddity and quite common.
atb blue.

 

[trouble]

It is caused by going to wood with the bitt still in , its not a very comon fault as the bitts are removed when the birds are loaded into grates to be taken to wood , but when your dealing with 1000s of birds the odd one gets through

 

[liamnjs]

It is fairly common, and as others have said it is because of either the bit not being removed or it being removed too forcefully (although this causes a range of problems, not just split beaks). A number of game vets I know are quite wound up about his at the moment as an impending welfare issue and are considering alternatives to traditional bitting.

 

[Jimbo 30 06]

During a pheasant shoot at Corwin in Wales at the back end of the season this year, the gun next to me shot a cock pheasant that had 2 upper beaks and a normal lower beak! I have seen some strange things this year. How unusual is this in birds in general.
atb blue.

Over the years picking up I have seen several. Nothing to worry about all that I picked were big healthy birds.

Jimbo