Pheasants in Romania: Two Metres from a Wild Pheasant in the Fog at Văcărești
Last autumn, on a very early morning in Văcărești Natural Park, thick fog and a bit of luck gave me one of my closest encounters with pheasants — and the photographs that started this series.
In this article (6)
I arrived at Văcărești Natural Park, in Bucharest, very, very early in the morning. The park was covered in a thick mist — a real fog, the kind where you only see a few steps in front of you.
On one of the walking trails, I had a rare piece of luck: about a dozen pheasants, males and females together, were feeding right on the path.
Down on the ground
Walking towards them standing up was not an option. So I did the only thing that made sense: I lay down on the ground, flat on my belly, and started creeping towards them — very, very slowly.
From down there, everything is different. You stop being a person walking through the park and become just a low shape in the fog, moving a little at a time.
Four hours on the ground
Then came the waiting: four hours. I was wearing camouflage clothing, lying flat on my belly, and I tried not to breathe too loudly so I would not disturb them.
Slowly, very slowly, one pheasant started coming closer to me. In the end it came to about two metres away and stood there looking at me, inspecting me. That moment — the bird choosing to come closer on its own — is the emotion I still carry from that morning.
The photographs were made in October 2025, with a Panasonic G80 and a Panasonic 100–300mm Mark II lens.
What happened next is the reason this page exists. The photographs from that fog became the start of a documentary series on the pheasants of Văcărești, and this note is its first chapter.
What the fog gave me
From belly height, a bird that would have flown off from a standing person keeps feeding. These are the frames that came out of that morning — all of them made from the ground, in the same fog.
A bird brought by people
The pheasant is not originally a Romanian bird. Its native range is in Asia, from Georgia to eastern China — and its scientific name, Phasianus colchicus, comes from Colchis, the ancient region on the eastern shore of the Black Sea where the Greeks and Romans first knew it.
It was brought to Europe for hunting, possibly as early as Roman times, and from the Middle Ages onwards it was stocked intensively on the hunting grounds of the nobility. In Romania, colonization actions are documented from the 15th century: the pheasant was introduced before 1500 in western Transylvania, and after 1900 in the south of the country.
Today it is naturalized — a self-sustaining part of the fauna of the plains and hills. The pheasants you see in Romania are a mix of races: some males carry a full white collar, others none at all.
What the pheasant means in Romania
For more than five centuries, the pheasant has been part of our rural landscape and hunting tradition. Its numbers are now slowly declining, under pressure from predators and harsh winters. That is exactly what made the Văcărești morning feel special: in a protected wetland in the middle of Bucharest, a dozen of these birds were feeding calmly on a walking trail — the park working exactly as a park should.
The series continues
One morning does not finish a series. I am still working through the photographs of the pheasants that live in the park, and I will keep adding frames and chapters to this note as they are ready.
Sources: Văcărești Natural Park Administration — The Pheasant, SOR Ornitodata — Fazan, AJVPS Constanța — Fazanul.
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Questions about the photos, the settings or the gear?
Write to me below — I read every message and reply when I'm back from the field. You can also email me directly at nick.usor.peter@gmail.com.
Wild By Nick — Field Notes. All photographs in this note were made by Nick Ungureanu.