A shy and elusive bird, the Mountain Peacock-pheasant is distributed and endemic to mountain forests of central Malay Peninsula. The diet consists mainly of berries, beetles and ants.
mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop as well as the nuclear ovomucoid intron G data confirms that this species belongs to a clade together with the Bronze-tailed Peacock-pheasant, but also the mainland species Germain's Peacock-pheasant and Grey Peacock-pheasant (Kimball et al. 2001).
The molecular data suggests - though not with high confidence - that this species diverged from mainland stock earlier than the Bronze-tailed Peacock-pheasant. This is quite spurious, since its biogeography and derived plumage, and the fact that it is a peninsular mountain endemic indicate it is derived from a fairly small founder population; this would confound molecular analyses. What seems clear is that the present species evolved from mainland Southeast Asian stock, probably during the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (3.6-1 mya). The unique pattern of wings and tail thus is, contrary to long-held opinion, an autapomorphy, and the southern species of this clade - formerly separated in the genus Chalcurus - are probably not each other's closest relatives.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Mountain Peacock-pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix III of CITES in Malaysia.
