I often go to the Palo Alto estuary and feed the squirrels,
however as they are wild, generally they are unaproachable....
( nor should you ever ! )

they are used to me enough that...
due to hunger/competition with each other
they will approach , line up in a ring, just a few feet away.

completely astonishing..not only me
but the squirrels as well
out pops this wild male pheasant !!!

you can't really see it in these photos...but
the squirrels backed up
and formed a larger ring
but sitting up ...at "attention"
( no doubt as surprised as I was ! )

We grew up in Cortland,Ohio
and the Cortland Conservatory bred pheasants
that once they got big enough would hop the fence and hide in the ditch
( just like this one was doing ...exactly !)

So in the sequence you can see him look at the squirrels
then at me.....( all animals communicate telepathically )
so all I dd with my mind was
"convince" him it was ok to approach me
notice that there are NO kernels anywhere on the ground
I deliberately did not toss any....somehow convincing myself I could do this
and convince the pheasant that I was a "good guy" and that he had nothing to fear from me...

it took....15 minutes....but I think the squirrels must have ALSO
told him that I was ok...as I had been feeding them for months....

what evidence for that...that the squirrels told him.....?
because he goes back and forth keeping the same distance
then "pauses" turns to toward the squirrels
then you can see here what happened !!!

he pretty much turned toward me and walked directly up to my hand
these are that sequence...shot with my left hand up in the air
with a bright silver Sony digital camera
( by itself "scary" enough to scare "critters" you would think ?