David from Castle Douglas sent in these wonderful close up pictures of pheasants, demonstrating the exotic glories to be found in the UK. He was able to get such wonderfully detailed shots as these pheasants are relatively bold mixing it with the chickens to take advantage of their food.
You'll notice some variation in the look of these two males (and others) – for instance the white ring present only on the second. According to Wikipedia this is because there are various subspecies, as a result of interbreeding down the years.
More of David's wonderful pheasants in a subsequent post, including what happens when they get into a scrap.
We see a lot around here and their colour variations are amazing. Those are very good portraits.