Proposal (709) to South American Classification Committee

Add Phasianus colchicus (Ring-necked Pheasant) to the South American list

Ring-necked Pheasants (photo included in Barros 2015; see below) were introduced to Coihaique in Southern Chile (Region of Aisen) starting on 27 Dec 1995 and continuing to 27 July 27 1996. There were a total of 2494 individuals released at that time, specifically in the area of Mallin Grande. Twenty years later the species is still present, and the range has increased to the provinces of Aisen, as well as Capitan Prat.

So we are dealing with an introduced population that has been present, breeding and expanding for 20 years. This entails more than 10 generations of breeding, successfully due to expanding population. No known further introductions after the ones in the mid-90s are known. Various records are found in eBird if anyone wants to see what part of Chile we are referring to, this is well within Chilean Patagonia in areas distant from larger cities so few observers are there to conduct population surveys, but the basic data is clear that they have persisted, and are more widely ranging now than the original introduction two decades ago.

From Barros (2015):

References:

Barros, R. 2015. Algunos comentarios a la Lista de las Aves de Chile. La Chiricoca 20: 57-78.

Rodrigo Barros and Alvaro Jaramillo, March 2016

========================================================

Comments from Remsen: “YES. Meets AOU criteria, i.e. at least 10 years of maintaining or increasing population through reproduction. Although actual breeding data are absent, I think it is a reasonable assumption that without successful reproduction, this population would have fizzled out long ago.”

Comments from Stiles: “YES. The published evidence justifies the criteria for establishment of this introduced species.”

Comments from Pacheco: “YES. Criteria are met!”