Burmese Pheasant

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Burmese Pheasant
"Paar des Burmafasans" from The Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon by Charles Henry Marshall and Allan Octavian Hume (1880)

"Paar des Burmafasans" from The Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon by Charles Henry Marshall and Allan Octavian Hume (1880)

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Chicken birds (Galliformes)
Family : Pheasants (Phasianidae)
Genre : Bind tailed pheasants ( Syrmaticus )
Type : Burmese Pheasant
Scientific name
Syrmaticus humiae
( Hume , 1881)

The Burma pheasant or Humefasan ( Syrmaticus humiae ) is a Hühnervogel art from the family of pheasant-like . It occurs in two geographically isolated subspecies. S. h. humiae inhabits the extreme east of India and the west of Myanmar , S. h. burmanicus parts of the western People's Republic of China and eastern Myanmar south to Thailand . The species lives in open, subtropical woodland that is mixed with rocks and grassy clearings.

With the epithet of Erstbeschreiber honored Allan Octavian Hume , his wife Mary Ann Grindall Hume. In English, the species is therefore often called "Mrs. Hume's Pheasant" . On a trip through Manipur , Hume saw the tail feather of an unfamiliar chicken on the headdress of a wearer and later had local birds catch him.

description

The Burmese pheasant's rooster reaches a body length of around 90 cm, with the tail accounting for between 40 and 54 cm. The wing length is between 206 and 225 mm and the body weight is around 1 kg. The hen is about 60 cm long, the tail is 20 cm. The wing length is between 198 and 210 mm, the weight about 650 g.

In the nominated rooster, the olive gray of the parting on the neck and sides of the head merges into the velvety black plumage of the rest of the head and neck, which has a metallic, dark blue effect due to its wide, shiny hems. The red eye area is featherless and provided with lobes that can be enlarged. Above it is a narrow, white feathered strip. The iris is orange-brown, the bill greenish horn-colored. The body plumage is predominantly lively chestnut brown to shiny copper-red, the feathers of the breast have a dark blue, subterminal spot. In the middle of the abdomen, the plumage looks a bit spotty. White ribbons run from the shoulders in a V-shape over the back. The lower back and rump are metallic dark blue, the white hems form a scale pattern. The light gray upper tail covers have an indistinct, dark cross band in the middle. The middle pair of control feathers is light gray and has narrow chestnut-brown transverse bands at wide intervals, which are narrowly black bordered towards the rump and merge into the basic color towards the end of the tail. There is also a maroon subterminal band on the outwardly following control springs, on the outer one there is a white end border. The shoulder plumage is chestnut red, the middle arm covers black with a metallic blue sheen. The large arm covers and the arm wings are chestnut-colored and have a white border that contrasts black towards the tip. When the wing is folded, this creates two narrow, white, parallel bands. The brown wrist wings have maroon hems. The legs and feet are matt light brown.

The hen is very similar to that of the Elliot's pheasant , but is paler overall and has a brown throat. The tan fore neck and upper chest may be spotted with black. The feather hems on the underside are more yellowish beige than white.

voice

The rooster call for the area is a series of crowing calls that sounds like chärapär chärapär chär chär chäria chäria . A loud chuk and a muffled buk serve as contact calls . The latter is also given out loud as a warning call. During courtship, roosters make hissing sounds. Various cackling and gurgling sounds are also described.

Distribution and existence

Spread of the Burmese Pheasant

The Burmese pheasant is found in the far east of India, parts of Myanmar, western China and the far north of Thailand. There are two disjoint subareas, each of which falls into a subspecies. One extends in northeast India from the states of Manipur , Mizoram and Nagaland to the Chin state in western Myanmar. The second extends in southwest China over parts of Yunnan and Guangxi to northeast Myanmar and Thailand.

The population in India is estimated at around 4,000 birds, in Myanmar around 6,000. There is no information for China and between 200 and 500 birds of this species are suspected in Thailand. The total population is estimated to be less than 20,000 birds. The species appears to be rather rare in India, but when it was recorded in 2002, numerous previously unknown occurrences were discovered, while others could not be confirmed again. In Myanmar there are no signs of population decline, here the species may have expanded its distribution slightly. In China, stocks are only stable in reserves and are likely to decline sharply otherwise. Slight decreases have been recorded in Thailand. The IUCN puts the species on the early warning list (“near threatended”).

Geographic variation

Two subspecies are described, the hens of which cannot be distinguished. At the cock of S. h. burmanicus , the blue areas on the upper side are stronger and more reddish, but on the head and neck they are more clearly set off against the back and less extensive than in the nominate form . On the lower back and rump the feathers are rather black, the white seams wider. There is no size difference between the subspecies.

  • S. h. humiae ( Hume , 1881) - northeastern India and western Myanmar
  • S. h. burmanicus ( Oates , 1898) - western China, northeastern Myanmar, and far north of Thailand

Way of life

In contrast to the other species of the genus, the Burma pheasant is not a pronounced high forest inhabitant. It occurs in mountainous regions between 1200 and 1300 m, where it inhabits dry, subtropical forests on slopes, which are loosened up by open, rocky terrain, bush and grassland. It prefers mosaic-like structures and stages of succession with adjacent, dense woody plants. Forest fires could play an important role in natural habitats. The diet consists of acorns and termites, among other things.

The species is similar in behavior to the pheasant . In winter, societies form, which dissolve in March and April. The rooster’s claim to territory is announced by an audible wing vortex and the courtship is initiated by the cock’s feed bait. In addition to the simple side balz, a frontal balz is described in which the rooster spreads its wings like a shield and raises its tail.

Clutches were found between March and May. They consist of 6–10 wide oval, cream-colored to reddish-white eggs of 48 × 35 mm in size, which are incubated for 27 days.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b BirdLife species factsheet, s. literature

Web links

Commons : Burmese Pheasant  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files