Nigel, the world's loneliest bird, dies next to the concrete decoy he loved

[samnsara]

5. i had a similiar experience where i live..with a pheasant...

..I have 5 acres way up in the mtns in a canyon and I got a pheasant chick from the game farm to release up here...thinking he would attract other pheasant (not to shoot, but for ambience). Grouse was the closest thing he attracted.

Poor Pheasant was up here all alone...he could be heard all thru out the canyon and neighbors would report he was in their pasture, on their porch or we would see him up in a pine tree. We always heard him tho.. it was a very cool sound up here among the pines. So we brought in some hens for him. They would follow him everywhere but he would run away from them and fly back up into the pine tree. Eventually the hens moved away (that's my story and I'm sticking to it-(altho a neighbor told us he shot the 'prettiest grouse you ever saw'..grrrr).

Throughout the four years he inhabited the area, we would get word from neighbors that they spotted our pheasant further and further down the canyon (we are 1000 ft higher than town)..

...and then one October we quit hearing him. I'm hoping that he found another home in an area with his kind.