By Denis O'Connor, Wharfedale Naturalists' Society

A soft clucking alerted me to a stand-off on a neighbour’s front lawn where two male pheasants, pumped up with testosterone and a desire to dominate the local territory and the attendant females, were confronting one another beak to beak.

At first glance one with a white neck ring and shorter tail seemed the more dominant, adopting a higher position than its dark-necked opponent, but every so often the lower bird would dart forward causing the other to rear and flap backwards. The posturing continued for ten minutes with neither bird giving way, at times both remaining like statues for half a minute or more. The deadlock was broken when the neighbour’s dog crept up to inspect proceedings through slats in the fence, causing instant flight.

Our street seems to have an increased population of male pheasants this year, spilling over from the adjacent Farnley Hall Woods, perhaps enticed into gardens by the opportunities offered by bird feeders.

For three years our garden was ruled by one large male which regularly put intruders to flight and in spring would stand guard over one or two feeding females, occasionally swelling up while flapping his wings and crowing to advertise his supremacy. One spring, however, he appeared in a much reduced state, crown and back bald and magnificent tail vanished.

Perhaps he had survived a near fatal confrontation with a fox, but my guess was a fight with another male, for at times extreme violence can ensue when rivals posture but neither will back down. Over a month he gradually regained his lost plumage and ruled for another year.

I have conflicting attitudes to these pheasants for, while admiring their beauty and feeling sympathy for those that have found a safe haven from the shooting parties for which they were bred, I am aware that they will hoover up the invertebrate populations of whole areas of woodland, reducing feeding opportunities for other wildlife.

At least 35 million pheasants are released in the UK every year and, before shooting begins in earnest, the pheasant is probably the most numerous bird in the countryside.

Even when their numbers are reduced, with a pheasant weighing ten times more than a blackbird and 100 times more than a blue tit, as far as biomass is concerned the pheasant is probably the top species throughout the year.