Brown peacock pheasant
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Brown peacock pheasant ( Polyplectron germaini ) |
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| Polyplectron germaini | ||||||||||
| Elliot , 1866 |
The brown peacock pheasant ( Polyplectron germaini ) is a species from the pheasant-like family . It is the only representative of the peacock pheasant genus that occurs in Vietnam .
Appearance
Brown peacock pheasants have a wing length between 16 (females) and 20 centimeters (males). The male's tail is between 25 and 32 centimeters long. In females, the tail length is 22 to 25 centimeters. The males weigh about 500 grams; the females about 400 grams.
The tail is strongly rounded and covered with numerous iridescent eye spots. The non-feathered areas of the face are reddish in color. Outwardly, the brown peacock pheasant is very similar to the gray peacock pheasant . In the wild, however, confusion between the two species is impossible, as the range of the two species does not overlap.
Way of life
The brown peacock pheasant is found exclusively in Vietnam. It occurs there from the lowlands to altitudes of 1200 meters. Based on observations made on captive birds, this bird is considered monogamous. The male's courtship behavior includes ritualized movements such as offering food to the female. The male presents his plumage with the iridescent eye patches both frontally opposite the female and in a posture in which the male stands sideways to the female, but the tail plumage is tilted towards the female.
Nothing is known about the breeding season of the brown peacock pheasant. In captivity, the females laid between three and six clutches each year, each consisting of one or two eggs. The interval between the individual clutches averaged 21 days. The eggs are incubated for 21 days. The young birds initially live exclusively on insects. Since they first have to learn to look for food for themselves, they are initially fed by the parent birds.
Unlike other species within the peacock pheasant, the brown peacock pheasant does not depend on primeval forests. It also uses the undergrowth as a habitat that grows back in the Vietnamese forests after logging.
Systematics
The brown peacock pheasant is obviously a close relative of the gray peacock pheasant and occasionally it is discussed to give the brown peacock pheasant merely the status of a subspecies . However, both the voice and the courtship behavior of the Eastern and Gray Peacock Pheasant are so different that a species status seems to be justified for both. In captivity, however, there are often crosses between the two species.
swell
Individual evidence
literature
- Paul Johnsgard: Pheasants of the world - Biology and natural history. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington 1999, ISBN 1-84037-129-3 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Polyplectron germaini in the Internet Bird Collection
- Polyplectron germaini inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2014.