No they were planted. But my dad use to hunt wild pheasants in mexico and he said that they were almost flying like wild ones. There is a local game bird club I shoot skeet at and I've watched some of the hunts there and those bird you have to give a kick in the butt to get up. Thats why at first I was kinda not wanting to do the hunt as my first pheasant hunt. But it all worked out and the birds were spooky.