An avid avian fan is looking to share his knowledge with others by starting a bird club for Whidbey Island.

Clinton resident Shawn Van Giesen keeps a backyard flock of chickens, pheasants and quails, a pastime he developed after moving full-time to South Whidbey in 2020.

By creating a club, he hopes to meet others who might be interested in the hobby or help them to build their own coops. It’s also an opportunity to exchange eggs and birds to deepen genetic bloodlines.

“It’s a good hobby for kids, it’s a good hobby for people who are retired, people who are injured,” he said. “They’re really therapeutic because they do take a lot of care but they’re simple to care for, as long as you keep food and water.”

Van Giesen grew up on a farm in Port Angeles with chickens. Raising pheasants became a new challenge, one he took on about five years ago when he was recovering from a bad car crash. As he soon found out, the wild, undomesticated birds require a watchful eye in order to survive.

“They will find 100 different ways to kill themselves, the pheasants,” he said. “They’ll fly up and get stuck in their water feeder, they’ll fall down their feed pipe.”

The birds are surprisingly quiet, making them neighbor-friendly. They love to eat squash from Van Giesen’s sizeable garden. In the sunshine, their feathers take on an iridescent sheen.

But pheasants have other uses besides being ornamental. A former hunter, Van Giesen thins the flock by harvesting some of the males, which tend to fight if they are too great in numbers.

“It’s a hobby that you can also eat,” he said.

His chickens, on the other hand, are his pets. He keeps giant white Bantams, which have feathery legs and feet, and another breed known as Easter Eggers for the colorful eggs they lay.

In addition, he also raises quail, which have a calming effect on the pheasants. An adult quail acts as a mother to baby pheasants, teaching them how to drink water.

“It’s funny because even as the pheasants get bigger and bigger, she orders them around,” Van Giesen said. “And the little itty bitty bird is saying, ‘You’re a bad boy,’ and they’re like twice the size of her.”

He keeps his chickens separate so they don’t spread bacteria to the pheasants. He explained that it’s also important to build a whole new coop for pheasants, rather than cleaning out an old chicken coop.

Those looking for more information about the bird club can email shawnvangiesen@hotmail.com or contact him through his Drewslist post.

Quail eggs are much smaller than a traditional chicken egg.