Pheasant

All About Great Argus

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The Great Argus (also known as Phoenix in some Asian areas) is a brown-plumaged pheasant with a small blue head and neck, rufous red upper breast, black hair-like feathers on crown and nape, and red legs. The male is among the largest of all pheasants, with up to 200cm in length. It has very long tail feathers. The male's most spectacular features are its huge, broad and greatly elongated secondary wing feathers decorated with large ocelli. The female is smaller and duller than male, with shorter tails and less ocelli. Young males attain adult plumage in their third year.

The Great Argus is distributed in the jungles of Borneo, Sumatra and Malay Peninsula in southeast Asia. It feeds on forest floor in early morning and evening. Unusual among Galliformes, the Great Argus has no oil gland and the hen lays only two eggs.

Though the Great Argus is not as colorful as other pheasants, its display surely ranks among the most remarkable. The male clears an open spot in the forest and prepares a dancing ground. He announces himself with loud calls to attract females, then he dances before her with his wings spread into two enormous fans, revealing hundred of "eyes" while his real eyes are hidden behind it, staring at her.

Despite displays similar to polygamous birds and though the Great Argus is thought to be polygamous in the wild, it is actually monogamous .

The scientific name of the Great Argus was given by Carolus Linnaeus in reference to the many eyes-like pattern on its wings. Argus is a hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology.

Due to ongoing habitat loss and hunted in some areas, the Great Argus is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.

Palawan Peacock-pheasant Information

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The Palawan Peacock-pheasant also known as the Napoleon Peacock-pheasant, is a medium-sized (up to 50 cm long) bird in the family Phasianidae.

The male is the handsomest and most peacock-like member of the genus Polyplectron. It has an erectile crest, a white stripe over the eyes and highly iridescent metallic green and black plumage. The tail feathers are decorated with large blue-green ocelli, which may be spread fanlike in courtship displays. The female is smaller than the male. It has a dark brown plumage with a short crest and is whitish on the throat, cheeks and eyebrows.

Endemic to the Philippines, the Palawan Peacock-pheasant is found in the humid forests of Palawan Island in the southern part of the Philippine archipelago. The female usually lays up to two eggs.

The Palawan Peacock-pheasant, with its unique male plumage and distant range, represents a basal (Early? Pliocene, c.5-4 mya) offshoot of the genus Polyplectron (Kimball et al. 2001).

Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range as well as hunting and capture for trade, the Palawan Peacock-pheasant is classified as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Malayan Peacock-pheasant

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It is one of the shortest-tailed peacock-pheasants. Adult males are about 50 cm long, about half of which is made up by the tail. Their tarsus measures approximately 6.5 cm, and their wings are 20–21 cm long; they weigh from over 600 to nearly 700 g. Their plumage is generally pale brown with small black spots and bands all over, creating the "salt-and-pepper" effect found in most peacock-pheasants. It has iridescent blue-green eyespots with a buff border on its upperwings, back, and on the 22 rectrices, a white throat running down to the center of the breast, and a loose, pointed and upturned dark blue-green crest on its forehead. A bare facial skin surrounds the eyes with their bluish-white iris; usually pink, it becomes bright orange-red during courtship. The bill and legs are blackish.

The female is slightly smaller than the male, with a noticeably shorter tail; measuring about 40 cm overall, its tail is slightly less than 20 cm long, while its tarsus measures c.6 cm and its wing length is 18 cm. Adult Females weigh about 450-550 g. Their plumage is duller than in males, with a vestigial crest and eyespots only on remiges and rectrices. On the wing coverts and back, they have dark dots instead, which are pointed towards the feather tip.

Young birds resemble females but have even less-developed eyespots and usually lack them entirely except on the rectrices. The downy hatchlings are pale chestnut-brown above and buff below.

Systematics

mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop as well as the nuclear ovomucoid intron G sequence data places the Malayan Peacock-pheasant within the basal radiation of its genus, together with the even more elusive Bornean Peacock-pheasant (P. schleiermacheri) – its sister species –, and the even more basal Palawan Peacock-pheasant (P. napoleonis). The common ancestor of the Malayan and Bornean Peackock-pheasants probably diverged from its relatives during the Pliocene or maybe Late Miocene, about 5 million years ago (Ma) perhaps.

When the lineages of Borneo and Malaya diverged has not been studied; considering the phylogeny of Polyplectron, an Early Pleistocene date, roughly around 1 Ma, seems reasonable. In that regard, it is probably significant that Borneo was connected to the Southeast Asian mainland during Pleistocene glacial periods with low sea levels. In any case, the phylogeny and biogeography of the basal peacock-pheasants agrees with the idea of reproductive isolation due to rising sea levels during the last ice age's interglacials, whereas the more advanced Polyplectron species are limited to today's mainland Southeast Asia.

Ecology

A shy and elusive bird, the Malayan Peacock-pheasant is endemic to lowland forests of the Malay Peninsula form the Isthmus of Kra region southwards. At one time, this species was widespread in Malaysia and Thailand, and reported from southern Myanmar, Sumatra and Singapore, but it probably never occurred in the former two at least in historic times. It has since disappeared from most of its former range, with the remaining population being confined to the lowlands of central Malaysia, perhaps extending barely into Thailand. Although nothing certain is known, there is nothing to suggest that this species is anything other than a sedentary bird; individuals probably do not move a long distance from their place of hatching. They are somewhat territorial, but the ranges of several birds probably overlap except for the core areas. Males move about in an area of approximately 10-60 hectars, while the ranges of females are half that size. The average population density in suitable habitat is estimated as slightly less than 7 adult birds per square kilometer.

It inhabits mainly dipterocarp rainforest up to 150 m ASL, rarely occurring even as low as 300 m ASL. While it can utilize secondary forest, such habitat does not seem to be optimal. Its feeding habits are little-studied, but it probably eats a mix of plant matter (particularly fruits) and small arthropods like its better-known relatives. It forages in typical galliform fashion, by scratching and pecking just like an ordinary farmyard chicken. Recorded food items include insects such as Diptera, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera (e.g. carpenter ants, Camponotus), and fruits and seeds of Annonaceae, Fabaceae and Fagaceae (e.g. stone oaks, Lithocarpus). Other items found in Malayan Peacock-pheasant stomachs were probably not ingested deliberately; they include moss, twigs, rootlets and part of an Apocynaceae flower.

Reproduction

Malayan Peacock-pheasants are polygynous or promiscuous, and do not form lasting pair bonds. The mating season is not well resolved; recently-used nests have been found in March, April and August. Breeding activity may in fact occur essentially all year round (as in many lowland rainforest birds), triggered by abundance of mast rather than by a fixed circannual rhythm. Males scrape the debris and leaf litter off their display sites in forest clearings, from where they call to attract females. They show off the large eyespots on remiges and rectrices to potential mates while standing in their display, both while facing them and alongside them.

As usual for Galliformes, the males' contribution to reproduction ends after copulation. The nest is very vestigial, consisting just of a few twigs and large leaves scraped together on low-lying firm ground, be it on a termite mound a short distance above the forest floor, or the forest floor itself. P. malacense is one of the few pheasants known with certainty to have a one-egg clutch. Incubation takes probably 22–23 days. The species is not infrequently bred in zoos.

[edit] Status and conservation

Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Malayan Peacock-pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Its classification is VU A2cd+3 cd+4 cd, meaning that its numbers have declined about two-thirds in the last decade or so, and that this trend is expected to last for another decade at least. It is listed on CITES Appendix II.

Deforestation is the main threat for this species, and has rendered more than half of the places where it was found in the 1970s unsuitable for it. The available habitat has even declined by over three-quarters during that time, indicating that the population – estimated at about 8.000 adults as of 2008 – is close to the maximum possible, as less and less suitable forest is not inhabitated by P. malacense. It used to be hunted for food or as a trophy, but comparing to deforestation these threats are nearly insignificant nowadays.

While a small amount of selective logging is tolerated by this bird, it depends on sufficient primary forest to persist. Most Malayan Peacock-pheasants today live in protected areas in Malaysia, namely Taman Negara National Park and Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang, and perhaps Sungkai Sambar Deer and Pheasant Wildlife Reserve in Perak and Sungai Dusun Wildlife Reserve in Selangor. There are also a few reports from less strictly-protected areas, such as Pasoh Forest Reserve in Negeri Sembilan. In areas where they receive protection and where suitable habitat is plentiful, the Malayan Peacock-pheasant can be fairly common, and thus become a flagship species for ecotourism and other forms of sustainable development. A zoo population exists, numbering 189 birds in 35 sites in 1993. Its studbook is maintained by the New York Zoological Society and Wildlife Conservation International. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Malaysia is preparing a captive breeding program to bolster the population in reserves and prevent inbreeding depression by release of captive-bred birds.

Germain's Peacock-pheasant Information

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The Germain's Peacock-pheasant is a medium-sized, approximately 60 cm long, brownish dark pheasant with finely spotted buff, short crest, bare red facial skin, brown iris and purplish-blue ocelli on upperbody plumage and half of its tail of twenty feathers. Both sexes are similar. The female has eighteen tail feathers and is smaller than male.

The Germain's Peacock-pheasant is endemic to southern Indochina. It is found in semi-evergreen dry forests of southern Vietnam and eastern Cambodia. The female usually lays two creamy-white eggs.

The phylogeny of this species is somewhat enigmatic. mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop as well as the nuclear ovomucoid intron G data confirms that it belongs to a clade together with the Grey Peacock-pheasant, but also the "brown" southernly species Bronze-tailed Peacock-pheasant and Mountain Peacock-pheasant. Biogeography suggests that it may indeed be the most ancient form in its clade, speciating parapatrically or peripatrically in Cochinchina (Kimball et al. 2001). This probably took place in the Late Pliocene, roughly 4-3 mya.

The name commemorates the French colonial army's veterinary surgeon Louis Rodolphe Germain.

Due to ongoing habitat loss and limited range, the Germain's Peacock-pheasant is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.

Mountain Peacock-pheasant

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The Mountain Peacock-pheasant, also known as Rothschild's Peacock-pheasant or Mirror Pheasant is a medium-sized, up to 65cm long, blackish brown pheasant with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The male has metallic blue ocelli on upperparts, green ocelli on tail of twenty feathers and two spurs on legs. Female has black ocelli on upperparts, unspurred legs and tail of eighteen feathers. The female is smaller and duller than male.

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.

All About Lady Amherst's Pheasant

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The Lady Amherst's Pheasant, is a bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae.

These are native to south western China and Myanmar, but have been introduced elsewhere, and have established a self-supporting, but now declining, feral population in England, the stronghold of which is now in Bedfordshire. As of 2009 only three males remain at one site, known as Jackdaw Hill, near Millbrook in Bedfordshire.

The adult male is 100-120 cm in length, its tail accounting for 80 cm of the total length. It is unmistakable with its black and silver head, long grey tail and rump, and red, blue, white and yellow body plumage. The "cape" can be raised in display.

This species is closely related to the Golden Pheasant and the introduced populations in England will interbreed.

The female is much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over, similar to that of the female Common Pheasant but with finer barring. She is very like the female Golden Pheasant, but has a darker head and cleaner underparts than the hen of that species.

Despite the male's showy appearance, these birds are very difficult to see in their natural habitat, which is dense, dark forests with thick undergrowth. Consequently, little is known of their behaviour in the wild.

They feed on the ground on grain, leaves and invertebrates, but roost in trees at night. Whilst they can fly, they prefer to run, but if startled they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive wing sound.

The male has a gruff call in the breeding season.

The name commemorates Sarah Countess Amherst, wife of William Pitt Amherst, Governor General of Bengal, who was responsible for sending the first specimen of the bird to London in 1828.

Widespread throughout its large range, the Lady Amherst's Pheasant is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Golden Pheasant Information

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The Golden Pheasant or "Chinese Pheasant", is a gamebird of the order Galliformes (gallinaceous birds) and the family Phasianidae. It is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China but feral populations have been established in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The adult male is 90-105 cm in length, its tail accounting for two-thirds of the total length. It is unmistakable with its golden crest and rump and bright red body. The deep orange "cape" can be spread in display, appearing as an alternating black and orange fan that covers all of the face except its bright yellow eye, with a pinpoint black pupil.

Males have a golden-yellow crest with a hint of red at the tip. The face, throat, chin, and the sides of neck are rusty tan. The wattles and orbital skin are both yellow in colour, and the ruff or cape is light orange. The upper back is green and the rest of the back and rump are golden-yellow in colour. The tertiaries are blue whereas the scapulars are dark red. Another characteristic of the male plumage is the central tail feathers which are black spotted with cinnamon as well as the tip of the tail being a cinnamon buff. The upper tail coverts are the same colour as the central tail feathers. Males also have a scarlet breast, and scarlet and light chestnut flanks and underparts. Lower legs and feet are a dull yellow.

The female (hen) is much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage similar to that of the female Common Pheasant. She is darker and more slender than the hen of that species, with a proportionately longer tail (half her 60–80 cm length). The female's breast and sides are barred buff and blackish brown, and the abdomen is plain buff. She has a buff face and throat. Some abnormal females may later in their lifetime get some male plumage. Lower legs and feet are a dull yellow.

Both males and females have yellow legs and yellow bills.

Despite the male's showy appearance, these hardy birds are very difficult to see in their natural habitat, which is dense, dark young conifer forests with sparse undergrowth. Consequently, little is known of their behaviour in the wild.

They feed on the ground on grain, leaves and invertebrates, but roost in trees at night. While they can fly, they prefer to run: but if startled they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive wing sound.

Although they can fly in short bursts they are quite clumsy in flight and spend most of their time on the ground. Golden Pheasants lay 8-12 eggs at a time and will then incubate these for around 22–23 days. They tend to eat berries, grubs, seeds and other types of vegetation.

The male has a metallic call in the breeding season.

The Golden Pheasant is commonly found in zoos and aviaries, but often as impure specimens that have the similar Lady Amherst's Pheasant in their lineage. The birds illustrated herein are typical. For example, one picture below shows subtle signs of a hybrid in the dark face, and in the yellow extending into what should be a pure dark red flank (where in the Amherst, the white flank would meet the green breast feathers in this area).

There are also different mutations of the Golden Pheasant known from birds in captivity, including the Dark-throated, Yellow, Cinnamon, Salmon, and Snowflake.

All About Common Pheasant

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The Common Pheasant is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native to Russia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant". "Ring-necked Pheasant" is a collective name for a number of subspecies and their crossbreeds. It has the smallest known genome of all living amniotes, only 0.97 pg (970 million base pairs).

It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The Common Pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred. Ring-necked Pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world; the game farm stock, though no distinct breeds have been developed yet, can be considered semi-domesticated. The Ring-necked Pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three US state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

The Green Pheasant of Japan is sometimes placed as subspecies within the Common Pheasant. Though the species produce fertile hybrids wherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among Galloanseres, in which postzygotic isolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have somewhat different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat the Green outcompetes the Common Pheasant; its introduction to Japan has therefore largely failed.

Description

There are many colour forms of the male Common Pheasant, ranging in colour from nearly white to almost black in some melanistic examples. These are due to captive breeding and hybridization between subspecies and with the Green Pheasant, reinforced by continually releases of stock from varying sources to the wild. For example, the "Ring-necked Pheasants" common in Europe, North America and Australia do not pertain to any specific taxon, they rather represent a stereotyped hybrid swarm. Body weight can range from 0.5 to 3 kg (1.1-6.6 lb), with males averaging 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) and females averaging 0.9 kg (2 lb).

The adult male Common Pheasant of the nominate subspecies Phasianus colchicus colchicus is 60–89 cm (24–35 in) in length with a long brown streaked black tail, accounting for almost 50 cm (20 in) of the total length. The body plumage is barred bright gold and brown plumage with green, purple and white markings. The head is bottle green with a small crest and distinctive red wattle. P. c. colchicus and some other races lack a white neck ring.

The female (hen) is much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over and measuring 50–63 cm (20–25 in) long including a tail of around 20 cm (8 in). Juvenile birds have the appearance of the female with a shorter tail until young males begin to grow characteristic bright feathers on the breast, head and back at about 10 weeks after hatching.

The Green Pheasant (P. versicolor) is very similar, and hybridizaton makes individual birds' identities often difficult to determine. Green Pheasant males are shorter-tailed on average and have a darker plumage that is uniformly bottle-green on the breast and belly; they always lack a neck ring. Their females are darker, with many black dots on the breast and belly.

In addition, various color mutations are commonly encoutered, mainly melanistic (black) and flavistic (isabelline or fawn) specimens. The former are rather common in some areas and are named Tenebrosus Pheasant.

Taxonomy and systematics

This species was first scientifically described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. The Common Pheasant is distinct enough from any other species known to Linnaeus for a laconic rufus, capîte caeruleo – "a red pheasant with blue head" – to serve as entirely sufficient description. Moreover, the bird had been extensively discussed before Linnaeus established binomial nomenclature. His sources are the Ornithologia of Ulisse Aldrovandi, Giovanni Pietro Olina's Uccelliera, John Ray's Synopsis methodica Avium & Piscium, and A natural history of the birds by Eleazar Albin. Therein – essentially the bulk of the ornithology textbooks of his day – the species is simply named "the pheasant" in the books' respective languages. Whereas in other species, such as the Eastern Meadowlark, Linnaeus felt it warranted to cite plumage details from his sources, in the Common Pheasant's case he simply referred to the reason of the bird's fame: principum mensis dicatur. The type locality is given simply as "Africa, Asia".

However, the bird does not occur in Africa, except perhaps in Linnaeus' time in Mediterranean coastal areas where they might have been introduced during the Roman Empire. The type locality was later fixed to the Rioni River – known as Phasis to the Ancient Greeks – where the westernmost population occurs. These birds, until the Modern Era, constituted the bulk of the introduced stock in Europe; the birds described by Linnaeus' sources, though typically belonging to such early introductions, would certainly have more alleles in common with the transcaucasian population than with others. The scientific name is Latin for "Pheasant from Colchis", colchicus referring to that region in the Caucasus^[11]; the Ancient Greek term corresponding to the English "pheasant" is Phasianos ornis, "bird of the river Phasis". Although Linnaeus included many Galliformes in his genus Phasianius – such as the domestic chicken and its wild ancestor the Red Junglefowl, nowadays Gallus gallus –, today only the Common and the Green Pheasant are placed in this genus. As the latter was not known to Linnaeus in 1758, the Common Pheasant is naturally the type species of Phasianus.

In the USA, Common Pheasants are widely known as "Chinese Pheasants" Sturnella magna though they are not the only pheasant species from China, nor the only Chinese pheasant that was attempted to introduce to North America, it is the only such bird that is common and widespread nowadays. More colloquial North American names include "chinks" or, in Montana, "phezzens". In China, meanwhile, the species is properly called zhi ji (雉鸡) – "pheasant-fowl" –, essentially implying the same as the English name "Common Pheasant". Like elsewhere, P. colchicus is such a familiar bird in China that it is usually just referred to as shan ji (山雞), "mountain chicken", a Chinese term for pheasants in general.

Subspecies

There are about 30 subspecies in five (sometimes six) groups. These can be identified according to the male plumage, namely presence or absence of a white neck-ring and the color of the uppertail (rump) and wing coverts. As noted above, introduced population in our time mix the alleles of various races in various amounts, differing according to the original stock used for introductions and what natural selection according to climate and habitat has made of that.

Sometimes this species is split into the Central Asian Common and the East Asian Ring-necked Pheasants, roughly separated by the arid and high mountainous regions of Turkestan. However, while the western and eastern populations probably were entirely separate during the Zyryanka glaciation when deserts were more extensive, this separation was not long enough for actual speciation to occur. Today, the largest variety of color patterns is found where the western and eastern populations mix, as is to be expected. Females usually cannot be identified even to subspecies group with certainty.

The subspecies groups, going from west to east, are:

Phasianus colchicus colchicus group – Caucasus Pheasants

Caucasus to W Turkestan.

No neck ring. Wing coverts buff to brown, uppertail coverts rusty to chestnut.

Phasianus colchicus chrysomelas/principalis group – White-winged Pheasants including Prince of Wales Pheasant (P. c. principalis)

Central Turkestan.

No or vestigial neck ring. Wing coverts white, uppertail coverts and general plumage hue bronze to brown.

Phasianus colchicus mongolicus group – Mongolian Ring-necked Pheasants or White-winged Ring-necked Pheasants

NE Turkestan and adjacent Mongolia.

Broad neck ring. Wing coverts white, uppertail coverts hue rusty to chestnut, general plumage hue copper.

Phasianus colchicus tarimensis group – Tarim Pheasants

SE Turkestan around the Tarim Basin.

No or vestigial neck ring. Wing coverts buff to brown, uppertail coverts dark khaki to light olive.

Phasianus colchicus torquatus group – Chinese Ring-necked Pheasants including Taiwan Pheasant (P. c. formosanus)

Throughout China but widespread in the east, extending to northernmost Vietnam and Taiwan in the south and to the Strait of Tartary region in the north.; Usually broad neck ring. Wing coverts tan to light grey (almost white in some), uppertail coverts grey to powder blue with orange tips. Top of head light grey.

Ecology

Common Pheasants are native to Asia, their original range extending from between the Black and Caspian Seas to Manchuria, Siberia, Korea, Mainland China and Taiwan. The birds are found in woodland, farmland, scrub and wetlands. In its natural habitat the Common Pheasant lives in grassland near water with small copses of trees. Extensively cleared farmland is marginal habitat that cannot maintain self-sustaining populations for long^.

Common Pheasants are gregarious birds and outside the breeding season form loose flocks. Wherever they are hunted they are always timid once they associate humans with danger, and will quickly retreat for safety after hearing the arrival of hunting parties in the area.

While Common Pheasants are able short-distance fliers, they prefer to run. If startled however, they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive "whirring" wing sound and often giving kok kok kok calls to alert conspecifics. Their flight speed is only 43-61 kilometres per hour (27 to 38 mph) when cruising but when chased they can fly up to 90 kilometres per hour (60 mph).

Common Pheasants feed solely on the ground but roost in sheltered trees at night. They eat a wide variety of animal and vegetable type-food, like fruit, seeds and leaves as well as a wide range of invertebrates, with small vertebrates like snakes, lizards, small mammals and birds occasionally taken.

The males are polygynous as is typical for many Phasianidae, and are often accompanied by a harem of several females. Common Pheasants nest on the ground, producing a clutch of around ten eggs over a two-three week period in April to June. The incubation period is about 23–26 days. The chicks stay near the hen for several weeks after hatching but grow quickly, resembling adults by only 15 weeks of age.

As introduced species

Common Pheasants can now be found across the globe due to their readiness to breed in captivity and the fact they can naturalise in many climates. Pheasants were hunted in their natural range by Stone Age humans just like the grouse, partridges, junglefowls and perhaps peacocks that inhabited Europe at that time. At least since the Roman Empire the bird was extensively introduced in many places and has become a naturalized member at least of the European fauna. Introductions in the Southern Hemisphere have mostly failed, except where local Galliformes or their ecological equivalents are rare or absent.

The bird was naturalized in Great Britain around the 10th century AD, arguably earlier, by both the Romano-British and the Normans, but became extirpated from most of the isles in the early 17th century. It was rediscovered as a gamebird in the 1830s after being ignored for many years. Since then it has been reared extensively by gamekeepers. Because around 30 million pheasants are released each year on shooting estates, it is widespread in distribution, although most released birds survive less than a year in the wild. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is researching the breeding success of reared pheasants and trying to find ways to improve this breeding success to reduce the demand to release as many reared pheasants and increase the wild population. As the original Caucasian stock all but disappeared during the Early Modern era, most dark-winged ringless birds in the UK are actually descended from Chinese Ringneck and Green Pheasant hybrids which were commonly used for rewilding.

Common Pheasants were introduced in North America in 1857, and have become well established throughout much of the Rocky Mountain states, the Midwest, the Plains states, as well as Canada and Mexico. In the southwest they can even be seen south of the Rockies in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge 100 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is now most common on the Great Plains. Common Pheasants have also been introduced to much of north-west Europe, the Hawaiian Islands, Chile, St Helena, Tasmania, New Zealand and Rottnest Island off Australia. It has also been unsuccessfully introduced to many other countries.

Green Pheasant Information

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The Green Pheasant, also known as Japanese Pheasant is a bird of the lowlands. Closely related to the Common Pheasant, the cock is distinguished by dark green plumage on breast and mantle. The male has an iridescent violet neck, red bare facial skin and purplish green tail. The female is smaller than male, and has a dull brown plumage with dark spots.

Native and endemic to the Japanese Archipelago, the Green Pheasant is the national bird of Japan.

This species is common and widespread throughout its native range. It frequents farmlands and is often seen close to human settlements; it also has been introduced in Hawaii and the United States as a gamebird.

Some authorities consider the Green Pheasant a subspecies of the Common Pheasant.

Fagiano Okayama football club, a club based in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, has a mascot based on the Green Pheasant.

Copper Pheasant Information

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The Copper Pheasant, also known as Soemmerring's Pheasant is a large, up to 136cm long, pheasant with a rich coppery chestnut plumage, yellowish bill, brown iris and red facial skin. The female is a brown bird with greyish brown upperparts and buff barred dark brown below. The male has short spur on its grey legs, none in female.

The Copper Pheasant is distributed and endemic to the hill and mountain forests of Honshū, Kyūshū and Shikoku islands of Japan. The diet consists mainly of insects, arthropods, roots, leaves and grains.

The scientific name commemorates the German scientist Samuel Thomas von Sömmering.

Due to ongoing habitat loss, limited range and overhunting in some areas, the Copper Pheasant is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

All About Elliot's Pheasant

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The Elliot's Pheasant also known as Bar-backed Pheasant is a large, up to 80 cm long, brown and white pheasant with a black throat, chestnut brown upperparts plumage, white belly, nape and wingbars, red bare facial skin and long rusty-barred whitish tail. The female is a rufous brown bird with blackish throat, whitish belly and white-tipped tail.

The Elliot's Pheasant is endemic to China, where it lives in evergreen and mountain forests of southeastern China, at altitudes up to 6,200 feet. The diet consists mainly of seeds, leaves and berries.

The name commemorates the American ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot.

Due to ongoing habitat lost, limited range and being hunted for food, the Elliot's Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Reeves's Pheasant

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The Reeves's Pheasant, is a large (up to 210 cm long) pheasant within the genus Syrmaticus. It is endemic to China.

The name commemorates the British naturalist John Reeves, who first introduced live specimens to Europe in 1831.

Description

The male is a brightly plumaged bird with a scaled golden white and red body plumage, grey legs, brown iris and red skin around eye. The head is white with a black narrow band across its eyes. The male has an extremely long silvery white tail barred with chestnut brown.

This spectacular pheasant is mentioned in the Guinness World Records 2008 for having the longest natural tail feather of any bird species; a record formerly held by the Crested Argus Pheasant. It can measure up to 2.4 metres or 8 feet (2.4 m) long.

The female is a brown bird with blackish crown, buff face and grey brown barred tail feathers. The hen Reeves's Pheasant is the same size as a male Common Pheasant.

There are no known subspecies but there is some variation in plumage.

Distribution and habitat

The Reeves's Pheasant is endemic to evergreen forests of central and eastern China. Where introduced they also inhabit farmland close to woodlands.

They have been introduced for sport and ornamental purposes to Hawaii, USA, Czech Republic, France and the UK. In the latter three countries they have built up small breeding populations, and are still released on a small scale for shooting, often alongside Common Pheasants.

Due to ongoing habitat loss, and overhunting for food and its tail plumes, the Reeves's Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are thought to be only around 2000 birds remaining in the wild.

Behaviour

Reeves's Pheasants are known to be aggressive towards humans, animals and other pheasants.

They like higher ground and are hardy birds, being able to withstand heat and cold.

Their call note is unlike other gamebirds in that it is a musical warble, more passerine sounding than would be expected. Their diet is vegetable matter as well as seeds and cereals. They are fairly common in aviculture.

A clutch of 7-14 eggs are laid in April or May and incubated for 24–25 days.

Cheer Pheasant

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The Cheer Pheasant, Catreus wallichii also known as Wallich's Pheasant is an endangered species of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. It is the only member in monotypic genus Catreus. It eats seeds,berries,and buds.It will occasionally take insects,mice,frogs,and lizards. The Cheer Pheasant is distributed in the highlands and scrublands of the Himalayas region of the Republic of India, Nepal, Kashmir and Pakistan. They are found mainly in the west of Nepal, Kumaon, Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Simla States, Bussahir, Chamba till about the Hazara District. They are found mainly above 6000 feet altitude and up to 10000 feet in summer.

These birds lack the color and brilliance of most pheasants, with buffy gray plumage and long gray crests. Its long tail has 18 feathers and the central tail feathers are much longer and the colour is mainly gray and brown. The female is slightly smaller in overall size.

Males are monogamous. They breed on steep cliffs during summer with a clutch of 10 to 11 eggs.

The scientific name commemorates the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich. Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and hunting in some areas, the Cheer Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES. While an endangered species, there are attempts to reintroduce captive bred Cheer Pheasant in Pakistan.

Blue Eared Pheasant

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The Blue Eared Pheasant, is a large, up to 96 cm long, dark blue-grey pheasant with velvet black crown, red bare facial skin, yellow iris, long white ear coverts behind the eyes and crimson legs. Its tail of twenty-four elongated bluish grey feathers is curved, loose and dark-tipped. Both sexes are similar with slightly larger male.

The Blue Eared Pheasant is found throughout mountain forests of central China. The diet consists mainly of berries and vegetable matters.

One of the most common and numerous eared-pheasants, the Blue Eared Pheasant is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Brown Eared Pheasant

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The Brown Eared Pheasant, is a large, up to 100 cm long, dark brown pheasant of mountain forests of northern China. It has stiff white ear coverts behind the eyes, which look like a moustache. The crown is black with red bare facial skin and its tail of twenty-two elongated white feathers is curved, loose and dark-tipped. Both sexes are similar in plumage.

The rarest member in the genus Crossoptilon, its diet consists mainly of roots, bulbs and plant matters. The female lays five to eight large eggs. The eggs are pale stone green in color and take 28 days to hatch.

Due to isolated population, deforestation and still hunted although legally protected by China, the Brown Eared Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

White-eared Pheasant

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The Genus Crosssoptilon comprises four distinct ecological species of "Eared Pheasants", so named because of their prominent ear tufts.

White Eared Pheasants (so called not because they are white-eared, but because they are white and eared) are called Shagga by indigenous Himalayan peoples. Shagga means Snow Fowl. Shagga are very gregarious birds, living in large flocks which forage on alpine meadow close to or above the snowline throughout the year. White Eared pheasants tend to fly a great deal more than their close relatives the brown eared and blue eared pheasants. All three ecological species are obliged to hover or volplane over deep snow. They do this with the aid of their great wide tails. Eared pheasants move across deep snow by whirring their wings and fluttering close to the ground, and supporting their weight on their retrices, leave characteristic if somewhat other worldly appearing tracks. Eared pheasant flight is often described as poor by the hunter collectors of the 18th century who used dogs to beat the birds from the ground for shooting. Eared Pheasants do not waste their energy on flying when quadrupeds take after them because they have adapted many defensive escape behaviors that do not require flight. When one lives with Eared Pheasants in their natural environment or free ranging in snowy environments, one is surprised at their aptitude for sustained flight- movements that only take them a few hundred yards at a time but in the snowy seasons this is significant nonetheless. This ability to cover large areas by flight is reminiscent of Ptarmigans, Sage Grouse and Syrmaticus Pheasants, all of which inhabit snowy regions and are obliged to forage for food by means of sustained flight during winter. Like these species, the White Eared Pheasant lacks a prominent trailing wing notch

Shagga forage for tubers and roots in alpine meadows often in the company of Yaks or other hoof stock. In winter, White Eared Pheasants subsist on pine needles, juniper berries, wolf berries, and the desiccated seed pods of iris, lily and allium. When hard pressed during the most severe winter storms which may blow for weeks at a time, Eared Pheasants may subsist upon pine pitch, deer, rabbit and yak dung.

While all known forms of White-eared pheasants are very similar in phenotype, there are behavioral and genetic differences which suggest that there is much to learn about their systematics and behavioral ecology.

The Szechuan White-eared Pheasant, is a galliform bird native to the Szechuan region of China. It is a subspecies of White-eared Pheasant, Crossoptilon crossoptilon. This form inhabits high altitudes along exposed rockscapes and may descend to old growth forests in winter. Its wings are dark greyish violet.

This bird is predominantly white, including, as its name suggests, white ears, but is not as white in as many places of its body as its close relatives the Tibetan White-eared Pheasant, C. c. drouyni, and the Yunnan White-eared Pheasant, C. c. lichiangnse. It has black tail feathers and wingtips and as well as a patch of black at the top of its head. The primary feathers range from dark grey to brown. The part of its face not covered by feathers has red skin.

The Szechuan White-eared Pheasant will not mate until it is two years old, then it will go into a heated breeding frenzy around the end of April. The breeding will last until June and these pheasants will produce about 4 to 7 eggs per clutch. The incubation period for their eggs is 24–25 days.

Although there is not much sexual dimorphism among the Szechuan White-eared Pheasant, the cocks are considerably larger than the hens.

Szechuan White-eared Pheasants have now become a vulnerable species. Encroaching on its habitat in agricultural China has reduced the range of the species, and hunting of these pheasants for food have threatened their numbers severely.

Bulwer's Pheasant

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Bulwer's Pheasant is also known as Bulwer's Wattled Pheasant, the Wattled Pheasant, or the White-tailed Wattled Pheasant. It is a Southeast Asian bird in the Phasianidae family; endemic to the forests of Borneo. The species is currently listed as vulnerable on the least concerened species.

Description

Bulwer's Pheasant is sexually dimorphic. Males (c.80 cm) are black-plumaged with a maroon breast, crimson legs, a pure white tail of long, curved feathers, and bright blue facial skin with two wattles that conceal the sides of its head. Females (c.55 cm) are an overall dull brown colour with red legs and blue facial skin. It was named after Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer, Governor of Labuan 1871-1875, who presented the type specimen to the British Museum.

Distribution and Habitat

The Bulwer's Pheasant is endemic to the island of Borneo. While the species is locally common in protected areas (e.g. Kayan Mentarang National Park, Kalimantan) it is rarely found elsewhere. The bird inhabits Montane tropical forest, likely preferring highland rainforests and rarely visiting the lowlands. The diet consists mainly of fruits, worms, and insects.

Status

Bulwer's Pheasant is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a rapidly declining population. The primary reasons for this decline are habitat loss and fragmentation due to commercial logging and forest fires. Local hunting is also thought to undermine the birds population. Further, captive breeding programs aimed at preserving the species have met with little success.

Captivity

This species is very rarely kept in zoos. The only western zoo to currently house the species is San Diego Zoo which keeps a pair of these birds. Walsrode Bird Park in Germany has kept the birds as recently as 2003, and Antwerp Zoo, Belgium, has bred the birds. Antwerp Zoo has been very successful with many of the lophura genus.

Crested Fireback

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The Crested Fireback, is a medium-sized, up to 70 cm long, forest pheasant with a peacock-like dark crest, bluish black plumage, reddish brown rump, black outer tail feathers, red iris and bare blue facial skin. The female is a brown bird with short crest, blue facial skin and spotted black-and-white below.

The Crested Fireback is found throughout lowland forests of Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo and Sumatra. There are four subspecies of the Crested Fireback, with two notable and very different forms. The nominate male Bornean Crested Fireback, Lophura ignita ignita of Borneo and Bangka Island has a brown central tail feathers, whitish legs and reddish brown below. The male Vieillot's Crested Fireback, Lophura ignita rufa of the Peninsular and Sumatra has a white central tail feathers, red legs and bluish black streaked white below. The female of nominate form has a dark, blackish tail and whitish legs, while female of the latter has a chestnut brown tail and red legs.

The diet consists mainly of plants, fruits and small animals. The female usually lays between four to eight creamy white eggs.

Due to ongoing habitat loss and overhunting in some areas, the Crested Fireback is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix III of CITES in Malaysia.

Crestless Fireback

2010-01-27T22:40:00.001-08:00

The Crestless Fireback is a species of bird in the Phasianidae family. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.It eats berries,seeds,mice,insects,and small frogs. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Salvadori's Pheasant

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The Salvadori's Pheasant, is a bird of genus Lophura, native to Indonesia. It is found in the mountain rainforests of Sumatra. Thus it is also known as the "Sumatran Pheasant." The species name "inornata" means "without ornament."

This species is classified as vulnerable. In Kerinci Seblat National Park numbers are reducing due to heavy trapping and hunting by local people for food.

This bird is named after Italian ornithologist Tommaso Salvadori.

Swinhoe's Pheasant

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Swinhoe's Pheasant, is a bird of the pheasant subfamily of Phasianidae family that is endemic to Taiwan, where it inhabits primary broadleaved forest and mature secondary forest at 200-2,300 m. It is commonly referred to as the unofficial "national bird" of Taiwan. There are no known subspecies.

The male is a spectacular bird, with glossy blue-purple chest, belly and rump, brown shoulder, red facial wattles and bright white tail feathers, back of the neck and crest. The female, as is typical with pheasant species, is a dark brown barred colour.

The bird was named after the British ornithologist Robert Swinhoe, who first described the species in 1862.

Swinhoe's Pheasants mainly eat seeds and fruits, as well as insects and other animal matter. The female lays 2-6 eggs which are incubated for 25–28 days. The young can leave the nest from 2–3 days.

Intensive fieldwork in the early 1970s suggested that there might be 5,000-10,000 individuals, although a recent estimate of c.6,500 in Yushan National Park alone indicates that its total population is likely to exceed 10,000 birds. Its numbers are probably stable where it is protected, but may be declining elsewhere because of a variety of pressures on its habitat.

Edwards's Pheasant Information

2010-01-27T22:37:00.001-08:00

Edwards's Pheasant, Lophura edwardsi, is a bird of the pheasant family Phasianidae that is endemic to the rainforests of Vietnam. It is 58–67 cm long, with red legs and facial skin. The male is a mainly blue-black bird with a crest,and the female is a drab brown bird. The alarm call is a puk-puk-puk.

This species has two varieties. The nominate form L. e. edwardsi has a white crest and upper tail, whereas the northern form L. e. hatinhensis is found with a variable number of white retrices. This difference in the two forms may be due to inbreeding of a restricted, fragmented population there, and has also been seen in captive, inbred L. e. edwardsi. The northern form is sometimes given a separate species status by some authors, Vietnamese Pheasant, Lophura hatinhensis (Vo Quy, 1975).

Both forms of Edward's Pheasant are currently listed as endangered species, having suffered from deforestation, hunting and the use of defoliants during the Vietnam War.

This species is currently believed to number between 1000-3000 birds in the wild, mostly of the nominate form, but it is doing well in capivity, where it is the subject of ex-situ conservation.

This bird is named after the French ornithologist Sir Edward Woolridge.

Silver Pheasant Information

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The Silver Pheasant is a large, approximately 125 cm long, white pheasant with bare red facial skin, red legs and glossy black below. The male is adorned with white, long, patterned tail and black dropping crest on its crown. At least two years are needed to attain full male plumage. The female is an olive brown with black-tipped crest.

The Silver Pheasant inhabits the mountain forests of mainland Southeast Asia and China.

Widespread and a common species in most of its habitat range, the Silver Pheasant is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Subspecies

There are fourteen subspecies of Silver Pheasant, distributed from east Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, China to the island of Hainan and recently seen in Smiths Station, Alabama, Bastrop, Texas and Nanaimo, British Columbia.

The nominate subspecies Lophura nycthemera nycthemera of southeastern China and northern Vietnam is the largest and whitest race. The southern subspecies have varying amounts of grey or black markings and shorter tails.

Anderson's Silver Pheasant, is described in Indian Sporting Birds by Frank Finn (1915), who gives the classification as Gennceus andersoni and suggests the bird may be a hybrid between a Silver Pheasant and the Lineated Kalij Pheasant, L. leucomelanos lineata; it is now classified as L. n. andersoni.

Finn also uses Hume and Marshall's illustration of Crawford's Silver Pheasant by A. W. Strutt (1878), which they call Euplocamus andersoni and Finn suggests could be a further cross with L. l. lineata.

Kalij Pheasant

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The Kalij Pheasant is a pheasant found all along the foothills of the Himalaya in a number of local populations with variations. They are also found (though somewhat rare) in the islands of Hawaii, where it is considered an invasive species because it consumes and disperses seeds of invasive plant species.

The name is also spelt Kaleege in older texts, such as Frank Finn's Game Birds of India and Asia (1911), though no longer in his Indian Sporting Birds (1915)

Koklass

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The Koklass Pucrasia macrolopha is a species of the Pheasant family, Phasianidae, and is the only species in the genus Pucrasia.

Koklass Pheasant is a monotypic species of genus Pucrasia with nine subspecies recognised so far. These are:

Indian koklass
Western koklass
Kashmir koklass
Nepal koklass
Meyer’s koklass
Orange-collared koklass
Yellow-necked koklass
Joret’s koklass
Darwin’s koklass

This entry deals with the subspecies P. m. biddulphi, which ranges from Kashmir east to Kullu in India. With exception of the subspecies nipalensis, castanea and macrolopha, which are endemic to the southern side of northwest and western Himalaya, other five are confined to China and Mongolia.

The Koklass is a medium sized elusive bird confined to high altitude forests from Afghanistan to central Nepal, and in northeastern Tibet to northern and eastern China. Upper parts of male Koklass are covered with silver-grey plumage streaked velvety-black down the centre of each feather, and it has the unique feature of a black head, chestnut breast and prominent white patches on the sides of neck. The females differ from males in above characters and instead their upper parts are covered with pale brown plumage. Both sexes, however, have distinct elongated tails tipped with pale feathers. The males are known to weigh about 1135 – 1415g and the females, about 1025 – 1135g, with the body length varying from 58 – 64cm and 18 – 22cm respectively. Immature and juveniles resemble adult females in plumage pattern.

Like the Western Tragopan, it does not extend its range above the tree line. One of the less colourful pheasants, the Koklass exhibits moderate sexual dimorphism. Though they skulk under bushes, which makes direct sighting difficult, they give loud chorus/predawn calls during the breeding season and during autumn, revealing their presence. They remain in pairs or small family groups throughout the year. They nest on the ground and spend the nights roosting on trees, or under rock overhangs.