Hmm I was brought up in the country and all my mum's family farm. There was quite often a brace of pheasant hanging of the kitchen door donated by neighbours although my mum couldn't stomach it and discreetly passed them to an elderly aunt who made pate.
But they would never be left outside for long. Magpies would be straight in for the eyes. Sounds like showing off to me.
I can remember reading about the gamekeepers gibbets as a kid and being horrified at the thought of owls, squirrels, crows, weasels, foxes, pole cats etc being trapped or shot and displayed as a deterrent to other animals (or more likely a gamekeeper showing off their work)
As for Pheasants they are reared to be shot and sadists pay good money to have fun shooting them. There is no justification for this sport. They are semi domesticated so they live their short brutal lives vulnerable to all predators as well as cars before being blasted from the skies- often wounded to be dispatched by hand. We might have concerns about the rearing of poultry - but they aren't shot by untrained randoms on a corporate shoot
Also its false that game birds are part of the food chain. True some goes to restaurants and I'm sure some is eaten by some of the game hunters (usually the tiny breasts- rest is wasted) . But the fact is there just isn't a market outside of specialist butchers and most is landfill.
Like fox hunting I'm just not accepting that the low paid temp work for beaters is worth the sadistic cruelty of corporate slaughter. Just stop breeding them. Some will survive as feral birds and might even thrive.