Let me be honest with you right from the start, because that is how I like to begin every collection: a true pheasant is a rare bird in the crochet world. There is exactly one dedicated pheasant pattern in this whole roundup, and it is a beauty, but the rest of the list is built the honest way — from the pheasant's own family and from birds dressed in pheasant colours. That is why this collection of crochet pheasant ideas leans on chickens, roosters and turkeys, which all belong to the pheasant family, Phasianidae, alongside jewel-coloured songbirds and feather crafts worked in the copper, emerald green and gold of a cock pheasant's plumage. Nothing here pretends to be something it is not, and every pattern is genuinely free.
So here are twenty ideas for you: one true pheasant applique, a set of Tunisian feathers, a whole farmyard of pheasant-family cousins, and a flock of generic birds that look wonderful in pheasant colours. I have noted the yarn, the size and the honest details for each one, including free-account notes and PDF-sold cases. Pick your favourite, raid the yarn stash in copper, green and gold, and let us make something gloriously game-bird gorgeous.
1. The One True Pheasant Applique
We begin, as we should, with the only genuine pheasant in the collection: Kerri's Crochet pheasant applique, a flat, beautifully shaped bird worked in fine crochet cotton with a tiny hook. The pattern is written in US terminology and comes in three sizes, so you can make a large pheasant at 21.5 by 17 centimetres with 8-ply yarn and a 3 mm hook, a medium one at 18 by 12 centimetres with 4-ply and a 1.5 mm hook, or a small one at 14 by 7.5 centimetres with 2-ply and a 1 mm hook. Her colour list reads like a pheasant's own palette — rust, dark teal, snow white, English tea, poppy rose, black coffee and topaz — and the finished bird has that long tail and proud, upright shape that says pheasant at a glance. The full pattern is free on her blog, and an ad-free PDF is available for a dollar if you prefer to print it.
Pattern: Pheasant Applique by Kerri’s Crochet — Get the free pattern
2. Tunisian Feathers in Pheasant Colours
If you have ever wanted to try Tunisian crochet without committing to a whole garment, Michelle at Poppy and Bliss has the perfect small project: her Tunisian feathers, worked in simple stitch with a 5 mm hook and DK cotton in at least two colours. The large feather measures about 17 centimetres and the small one about 13, and they suit bookmarks, keychains, garlands, wall hangings, gift toppers and jewellery. Work them in copper, deep green and gold and you have a whole tail of pheasant feathers without ever claiming they came from a real bird, which is rather the point. The complete tutorial and pattern are free on her blog, while an ad-free printable PDF is sold for two dollars in her shops.
Pattern: Tunisian Feathers by Poppy and Bliss — Get the free pattern
3. A Rooster From the Same Trusted Hook
Staying with Kerri's Crochet, her rooster pattern is the natural next make for a pheasant collection: roosters are pheasant-family birds, and this one wears the same copper, teal and gold palette as the pheasant above. The pattern is free to follow on her blog in US terminology, with a video tutorial walking through every piece, and an ad-free version is available for a dollar on Ravelry and LoveCrafts. It is made in Scheepjes crochet cotton with a small hook in three sizes — large 17.5 by 15 centimetres, medium 10.5 by 11, small 8 by 8 — so you can match it to the pheasant applique or make a graduated farmyard. The finished rooster has a proud comb, a layered tail and a bead eye, and it sews beautifully onto the same cushion or bag as idea one.
Pattern: Rooster Pattern by Kerri’s Crochet — Get the free pattern
4. A Heart-Shaped Rooster Applique
GoldenLucyCrafts builds her appliques around a clever trick — the body starts as a heart — and her rooster is one of the prettiest in the whole heart-shaped series. The body is a heart worked in light weight cotton with a 2.75 mm hook, with a separate head, comb, wattle and a four-feather tail in different colours, and the finished applique stands about three and a quarter inches tall. It is rated intermediate, as there are several small pieces to track, but each is simple on its own and the designer gives clear round-by-round instructions. The full pattern is free on her blog, with a print-friendly PDF sold in her Etsy shop if you want an ad-free copy. Work the tail in copper, gold, green and rust and this little rooster could pass for a pheasant's flashier cousin at a glance — honestly framed, of course, as a rooster in pheasant colours.
Pattern: Heart Rooster Applique by GoldenLucyCrafts — Get the free pattern
5. A Fuzzy Little Rooster With Felt Details
Stephanie Lau of All About Ami designed her Chinese New Year roosters palm-sized and irresistibly fluffy: an egg-shaped body in Bernat Pipsqueak fuzzy yarn, worked with a 3.5 mm hook, with a red comb and wattle, a felt beak and a choice of teal safety eyes with felt roundies or plain black eyes (the Pip variant). The finished rooster is just three and a half inches tall and wide, and the complete pattern is free on her blog, including the comb, wattle, wings and chain-stitch feet, with an inexpensive ad-free PDF sold on Etsy and LoveCrochet. Because the fluffy yarn hides the stitches, this is a forgiving make even when you cannot see exactly where your hook is going — you work it by feel, and the fuzz forgives everything.
Pattern: Chinese New Year Rooster by Stephanie Lau at All About Ami — Get the free pattern
6. A Golden Chicken and Her Matching Egg
Here is a two-for-one that I could not resist: Amy, guest designing for Craft Passion from her Hooked studio, wrote a golden chicken amigurumi with a matching egg pattern on the same page, both free in full. The chicken is worked in 5-ply cotton with a 3 mm hook and 6 mm safety eyes, with a body built over twenty-seven rounds, bubble-stitch wings, an orange beak and a red comb and wattle, and the whole bird glows in yellow and dark yellow with red and orange accents. The egg uses the same yarn and sits beside her like a little bonus project, which makes this a lovely pair for a spring display or a gift set. Frame it honestly and this is a pheasant-family cousin in pheasant gold — not a pheasant itself, but the colour story is exactly right, and the golden body against a dark green background looks wonderfully game-bird grand.
Pattern: Golden Chicken Amigurumi by Amy at Craft Passion — Get the free pattern
7. A Heart-Shaped Turkey for Autumn
Turkeys are pheasant-family birds too, and GoldenLucyCrafts' heart turkey applique is the autumn anchor of this collection: a heart-shaped body with legs, a snood and five separate feathers, worked in worsted weight yarn with a 5 mm hook, finishing about five and three-quarter inches tall and seven inches wide. The pattern is free on her blog, with a print-friendly, ad-free PDF sold in her Etsy shop, and she shows it in two sizes made with different yarn weights, so you can scale it from card embellishment to cushion centrepiece. The feather colours in her sample — cherry red, pumpkin, bright yellow and chocolate — sit beautifully beside pheasant copper and gold, and a row of these turkeys in autumn shades makes a wonderful Thanksgiving table decoration.
Pattern: Heart Turkey Applique by GoldenLucyCrafts — Get the free pattern
8. A Squishy Turkey Pillow
If the applique above is the delicate turkey, Tamara Kelly's Turkey Squish on Moogly is the cuddly one: a big round amigurumi softie, about ten inches across, worked in Bernat Blanket yarn with an 8 mm hook and stuffed with a pillow ball or fiberfill. The pattern is free on her blog, with ad-free PDFs sold on Ravelry and Etsy, and it follows her whole Squish family construction — a bottom half and a top half sewn together, with a beak, wattle, feet and five tail feathers in yellow, red and orange. The large yarn and hook make it a fast weekend make, and the finished bird is soft enough to be a pillow and cheerful enough to be a toy. Work the body in taupe brown with a copper and gold feather fan and it reads as a pheasant-coloured cousin at first glance, which is the honest framing for this one.
Pattern: Turkey Squish by Tamara Kelly at Moogly — Get the free pattern
9. A Pocket Chicken Family on Video
Sweet Softies' pocket chicken family is the one video-only entry in this list, and I am labelling it clearly as such: the free version of this pattern is a step-by-step video tutorial, while the written instructions with photos and a bonus nest pattern are sold as a PDF. What the video teaches is a miniature mother hen and baby chick in chunky chenille velvet yarn with a 5 mm hook and 9 mm safety eyes, finishing about three and a half inches tall, with no sewing needed and a pocket-sized charm. The hen uses the same body base as the chick with a red crown, green tail and wings added, and she can honestly pass as a rooster too, which gives you two birds from one tutorial. Just know before you start that you will be following along on screen rather than from a written page.
Pattern: Pocket Chicken Family by Sweet Softies — Get the free pattern
10. An Easter Chicken in Classic Cotton
Amigurumi Today's Easter chicken is a gentle, classic amigurumi: worked in YarnArt Jeans with a 2.5 mm hook and 6 mm safety eyes, finishing about fifteen centimetres tall sitting down, and rated intermediate. The pattern is free to read online with a free Amigurumi Today account, while a printable PDF is sold in their shop, which is the same arrangement as several of their patterns in this list. The chicken's soft shape and simple colour changes make it a lovely first amigurumi if you have made a ball or two before, and it takes well to pheasant colours — a copper body, a dark green tail and a gold beak turn a farm chicken into a game-bird cousin with very little effort.
Pattern: Easter Chicken by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
11. A Hatching Chick With a Felt Eggshell
Janet Carrillo of damn it Janet, let's crochet! designed this hatching chick applique to be small, quick and full of personality: a yellow chick body worked in worsted weight yarn with a 3.5 mm hook, finishing about two and a third inches tall, with wings and feet joined as you go and only the facial features left to sew. The clever touch is a cracked eggshell cut from white felt and glued onto the head or bottom of the chick, with black felt eyes, a tiny gold felt beak and optional blush on the cheeks. The complete pattern is free on her blog, written as an original design with clear round counts and a glossary, and you can skip the eggshell entirely if you just want plain chicks. Make a row of them in gold and copper with green felt shells and they become a pheasant-family nursery — chicks, honestly labelled, in game-bird colours.
Pattern: Hatching Chick Applique by Janet Carrillo at damn it Janet, let’s crochet! — Get the free pattern
12. A Chick Garland for Spring Shelves
The Knotted Nest's Easter chick garland takes the chick idea and strings it into a proper decoration: each chick is made from two flat panels worked in rows and joined with single crochet, lightly stuffed, with embroidered eyes and a small orange beak, finishing about six and a half inches tall. The full pattern is free on her blog, with a printable ad-free PDF sold in her Etsy and Ravelry shops, and the instructions cover stringing five chicks into a garland about seventy inches long, either threaded on twine or attached to a crocheted chain. The yarn is worsted weight with a G hook, and the colour-change panels let you play — white shells with yellow chicks, or copper and gold chicks with deep green shells. A garland of them in autumn colours works far beyond Easter, draped over a mantel or a bookshelf.
Pattern: Easter Chick Garland by The Knotted Nest — Get the free pattern
13. A Sleepy Owl With Closed Eyes
Now we move from the pheasant family to the generic birds, and I will keep the framing honest for each one: this sleepy owl is not a pheasant, but in pheasant colours it sits beautifully in this collection. Amigurumi Today's sleepy owl is worked in fine acrylic with a 2 mm hook, finishing about ten centimetres tall, and it is rated easy, with closed eyes, teal head tufts and embroidered polka dots that give it a drowsy, bedtime feel. The pattern is free to read online with a free Amigurumi Today account, while a printable PDF is sold in their shop, and you can even slip a noise maker inside to turn it into a rattle. Work the body in copper brown with a dark green belly and gold dots and the owl takes on a woodland, game-bird mood without pretending to be anything else.
Pattern: Sleepy Owl by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
14. A Tiny Owl Keychain
The second owl in the list is Amigurumi Today's owl keychain, a very easy, beginner-friendly little trinket designed to hang from a bag or a set of keys. Like the sleepy owl above, it is free to read online with a free Amigurumi Today account, with a printable PDF sold in their shop, and its whole point is smallness — a pocket owl finished in an evening from scraps. That smallness is exactly why it earns its place here: make a dozen in pheasant copper, gold and green, add keyrings, and you have a set of market-stall or gift favours that carry the pheasant colour story without claiming to be pheasants at all. Owls and pheasants share the same woodland in real life, and on a keyring they share it rather nicely too.
Pattern: Owl Keychain by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
15. An Owl Granny Square
Sarah of Repeat Crafter Me originally designed this owl as a guest pattern for Petals to Picots' granny square month, and it is a lovely hybrid: an owl applique crocheted first as a round motif with pointed ears, then given a granny-stitch border worked from chain spaces on the back, so the finished square can join a blanket, a pillow, a tote or a bunting. The pattern is free on the Petals to Picots blog, written for worsted weight yarn with a 4.25 mm hook at intermediate level; skip the border and the owl works alone as a plain applique. Work the owl in copper and cream with a green granny border and you have a woodland square that fits this collection's palette perfectly, honestly labelled as an owl square in pheasant colours.
Pattern: Owl Granny Square by Sarah of Repeat Crafter Me at Petals to Picots — Get the free pattern
16. A Macaw in Jewel Colours
If pheasant plumage is about copper and green, then a macaw is its loud, jewel-toned cousin, and Amigurumi Today's macaw parrot brings that colour to the list in the best way. The pattern is free to read online with a free Amigurumi Today account, with a printable PDF sold in their shop, and it is rated advanced, worked in YarnArt Jeans with a 2.5 mm hook for the body and a 2 mm hook for the beak, finishing about fourteen centimetres tall. The macaw's long tail, curved beak and bright blocks of yellow, pink, blue and green make it a showpiece, and the colour changes are the whole joy of it. This one is not a pheasant and not a family cousin — it is a generic exotic bird included for its jewel colours, which echo the iridescent green and gold of a pheasant's neck.
Pattern: Macaw Parrot by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
17. A Resplendent Quetzal on Ribblr
TonkiCrafts designed her resplendent quetzal as an entry for a 2020 amigurumi showcase, and it is still one of the prettiest small birds I have found: a beginner-level pattern worked in DK cotton with a 2.75 mm hook and 6 mm safety eyes, in spearmint green, rose red, mustard yellow and white. The pattern is free on Ribblr as an interactive ePattern with row-by-row tracking, which needs a free Ribblr account, while a paid Etsy version with step-by-step photos is also sold. The quetzal's long green tail and bright red breast are a natural match for pheasant colours, and keeping such a small bird recognisable was the designer's proudest challenge. This is a generic exotic bird, honestly labelled, and its jewel greens and reds sit beautifully beside the copper and gold elsewhere in this list.
Pattern: Resplendent Quetzal by TonkiCrafts at Ribblr — Get the free pattern
18. A Baby Flamingo With a Wire Skeleton
Amigurumi Today's baby flamingo is the long-legged wildcard of the collection: an advanced-level amigurumi in pink, black and white-grey yarn, with buttons or beads for eyes and an optional wire skeleton that lets you pose the neck and legs. The full pattern is free to read on their blog page, with a printable PDF sold in their shop, and it includes a separate head, beak, body and neck worked in rounds. A flamingo is not a pheasant, not a cousin and not even a woodland bird — its long neck and elegant posture make a wonderful contrast piece among the round farmyard birds, and in a muted copper-pink it picks up the pheasant palette unexpectedly. If your shelf of birds is starting to look too uniform, this tall, slim flamingo breaks the line beautifully.
Pattern: Baby Flamingo by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
19. A Baby Penguin in a Winter Hat
The baby penguin from Amigurumi Today is the cosiest bird on the list: a little penguin that loves wearing colourful winter hats and scarves, worked in Alize Cotton Gold or YarnArt Jeans with a 2 mm hook and 8 mm safety eyes, finishing about twelve centimetres tall. The pattern is free to read online with a free Amigurumi Today account, with a printable PDF sold in their shop, and it is rated advanced, with wings, legs and tail joined to the body as you crochet. A penguin is as far from a pheasant as a bird can get — in a copper-brown body with a gold scarf and green hat, it becomes a woodland winter friend rather than a black-and-white cliché. Sometimes the best way to show off a palette is to put it on the most unexpected bird.
Pattern: Baby Penguin by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
20. A Duckling in a Hat and Scarf
We finish with Amigurumi Today's duckling, an easy, beginner-friendly amigurumi in light worsted yarn with a 3 mm hook and 7 mm safety eyes, finishing about twenty centimetres tall including its hat. The pattern is free to read on their blog page, with a printable PDF sold in their shop, and the duckling wears a cute hat with a pompom and a soft scarf. A duckling is a generic bird, not a pheasant, but dressed in gold with a green scarf and a copper hat it closes this collection on a warm, cheerful note — the farmyard cousin who turned up to the pheasant party in its best clothes.
Pattern: Duckling by Amigurumi Today — Get the free pattern
Conclusion
And that is twenty pheasant-flavoured ideas, my friend — one true pheasant applique, a set of Tunisian feathers, a farmyard of pheasant-family chickens, roosters and turkeys, and a flock of generic birds dressed honestly in copper, green and gold. If you are new to appliques, start with the pheasant itself or the heart rooster; if you want a weekend toy, the golden chicken or the turkey squish are calling your name. Whichever you choose, keep the palette true — copper, emerald and gold.
Now tell me — are you team true pheasant applique or team pheasant-family farmyard, and which of these twenty is going on your hook first? I read every comment, and I cannot wait to see your makes!
