Little owl

[klondike]

Pheasants do fly well. Fast and high. It's why they are bred for shooting. I don't know if its just that they are ln an alien environment or they really are dumb. 

Some birds are really smart - the corvids mostly. Most others are smart enough to avoid cars. Pigeon don't always as they often fly low over roads for no clear reason. Over the years I've hit several almost always on motorways. The first I've known being a heavy thump on the windscreen.  Some do seem to be hit while on the road but I've never hit one there

[Mups]

Pheasants do fly well. Fast and high. It's why they are bred for shooting. I don't know if its just that they are ln an alien environment or they really are dumb.

Some birds are really smart - the corvids mostly. Most others are smart enough to avoid cars. Pigeon don't always as they often fly low over roads for no clear reason. Over the years I've hit several almost always on motorways. The first I've known being a heavy thump on the windscreen.  Some do seem to be hit while on the road but I've never hit one there

I see more Pigeons than ant other bird squashed on roads.   They never seem to fly away when they see you coming,  they just sit there in the road until the very last second before they take off.

I can't see how  Pheasants can fly well when they are first released,  as if they have been cramped in cages or tight pens all their young life, and not had room to fly,   I would have thought their wing muscles would be useless at first.    Like the old chicken battery farms,   they were squashed in all their young life and could barely walk,  let alone fly.     It takes a while to build wing muscle up again after freedom.

[klondike]

I dont know anything much about pheasant shooting or how they are reared but I do know that are famed for how fast and high they can fly.

Just looked it up. They typically fly 40mph but can do 60mph. They wont normally be high so pheasant shoots are organised with the shooters lower than where the birds are driven off the ground. They don't fly high and fast for long. Tbh I've only ever seen them walking. Often suicidally.

Pigeon like many other creatures have visual refresh rates faster than humans and what looks like brinkmanship is to them plenty of time. They are usually but not always right. The ones I"ve hit have been flying but dipped down too low crossing the road and always on a fast stretch.

[muddy]

I would imagine those birds that have never never been out of a pen in their life,  so couldn't possibly know anything  about cars and traffic, never having  seen them,  so  wouldn't have the inborn sense of danger like naturally wild birds would have.   

Poor things have only ever seen their own kind  squashed in a pen with them, and humans,  but no traffic, no guns, no gun dogs chasing them out of hiding. 
Then one day when they are released into a totally strange environment,  not knowing where they are, where is a safe place to go,  or probably not even able to fly,  they must be like  sitting ducks,  and very easy targets for those who like to kill  for  pleasure.

I absolutely loathe the hunting lot,  and would like to see the same happen to them in the next world.

You are right Mups they are poults released and don't know what to do .
I had nt realised it was poult release season already - time flies if they don't .
I have stopped my car at times to shoo them off the road .
Hunting them is despicable you may as well shoot chickens 

[klondike]

Nobody is hunting them. They are out of season. They won't have been released if they are young birds they will be escapees and most will either be run over or eaten by foxes. I've not seen any for a while now. Most that survived the season will not have survived being free. I imagine the only reason there are any at all is because they are expensively bred to be shot. Similar to most farm animals really they fall foul one way or another to humans who are this world's apex predator.