A striking, long-tailed, heavy-bodied gamebird, often tame where released for shooting but more wary and wild where it has become naturalized.

Present in Britain since about the 11th century. Bred and released in huge numbers for shooting, they have become widespread and familiar. Many released birds are ridiculously tame, and some enter parks and large gardens where they may survive as ornamental birds. A few, however, live much wilder lives in woodland, on the bushy edges of heathland and, in winter, in and around freshwater marshes with reedbeds, assorted scrub, and mixed woodland.