Diamond pheasant

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Diamond pheasant
Portrait of a male diamond pheasant

Portrait of a male diamond pheasant

Systematics
Order : Chicken birds (Galliformes)
Family : Pheasants (Phasianidae)
Genre : Collared Pheasants ( Chrysolophus )
Type : Diamond pheasant
Scientific name
Chrysolophus amherstiae
( Leadbeater , 1829)

The Lady Amherst's pheasant or Amherst ( Chrysolophus amherstiae ) is a Hühnervogel art from the family of pheasant-like , their distribution from the southwest central china to the south-eastern Tibet and into northern Myanmar last. The rooster is one of the most contrasting and colorful pheasants and is therefore, like the closely related golden pheasant, often kept as an aviary bird. The inconspicuous hen, on the other hand, is mostly banded reddish brown and black. In England the species was introduced from 1890, but could only survive there in free-ranging populations in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire . In its homeland, the diamond pheasant inhabits mountain forests, bamboo jungles and bushes at heights of up to 4500 m.

The specific epithet honors Countess Sarah Amherst, who brought the first diamond pheasants to England in 1828. She was the first wife of the then British Governor General of India, William Pitt Amherst .

description

Hen of the diamond pheasant
Rooster of the diamond pheasant
Male diamond pheasant in the Oberreith wildlife and leisure park

The cock of the diamond pheasant is between 130 and 170 cm long, of which 86–115 cm are on the tail. The wing length is 205-235 mm, the weight between 750 and 850 g. In the hen the tail makes 31-37.5 cm of the 66-68 cm body length. The wing length is 183-203 mm, the weight is between 600 and 800 g.

The forehead and crown of the rooster are metallic dark green, the shiny dark red hood made of 60 mm long, hard and radiantly narrow feathers falls from the back of the head to the neck. The featherless area around the eye is not very extensive and bluish to greenish. The iris is light yellow, the bill greenish yellow. The typical “collar” extends from the top of the head to the neck and to the sides of the chest. Its broad, white feathers are rounded at the end, lined with shiny blue black and have a straight line on the covered part. The wide, round feathers on the chin, throat, goiter sides and upper chest as well as the front back have a metallic dark green shine. They are lined with black on the back, on the front they have a subterminal, shiny black ribbon and a wide, fringed, green-gold-shiny end hem. The pure white underside only shows black hems on the flanks and behind the thighs, the black under-tail-covers shine green at the tips. The black arm wings have a metallic blue sheen towards the umbrella springs. The black-brown hand wings are irregularly lined with white on the outer flag. The rear back is intensely yellow feathered, the lateral feathers and the front upper tail-coverts bright red with partly black-green centers. The rear upper tail-coverts are up to 24 cm long. The basal part is banded blue-black on a white background, the fields in between are spotted black. The distal part is bright orange-red. The middle, white pair of control springs is roof-shaped in cross-section, like the basal part of the upper tail-coverts with black bands and scrawled and spotted in between. This pattern can also be found more indistinctly on the middle part of the other control feathers on the shaft, black transverse bands extend to the broad, brown outer edge of the flags. Legs and feet are bluish light gray.

The hen is similar to that of the golden pheasant. It differs from this, among other things, by the rather chestnut brown color of the upper side, which extends to the upper chest and the flanks and runs out to the lower, light beige to whitish belly. The black banding is overall stronger and wider. It has a greenish metallic sheen. The wave drawing on the back is also stronger. The throat is beige, the reins, cheeks and ear coverts are silver with black spots. The control feathers are rounded at the end and on a chestnut-colored background very contrasting black-beige cross-banded and scribbled black. As with the rooster, the eye area is featherless. Like legs and feet, it is blue-gray to slate-gray.

voice

The sound repertoire of the species is poorly known. The Revierruf ( audio sample ) is probably a warning sound . A feed call that sounds like suppressed giggling is also described.

Distribution and existence

The distribution of the diamond pheasant is more westerly than that of the closely related golden pheasant and extends from about 31 ° N in western Sichuan to Saluen in southeast Tibet . It extends south to the east of Shan State in Myanmar and to Yunnan and western Guizhou . Hybridization with the golden pheasant occurs in the overlap area of ​​the two species, which lies roughly in the border area of ​​Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou .

The population of the species is estimated at less than 50,000 individuals. Despite a suspected decline in the population, the IUCN regards them as not at risk (“least concern”).

Way of life

The diamond pheasant occurs in higher, cooler areas than the golden pheasant, where it inhabits wooded slopes, bamboo thickets and bushes up to heights of 4570 m. In winter the species lives in flocks from several families of 20 to 30 birds, during the breeding season it is probably monogamous . The search for food takes place in two phases of activity, morning and evening, in open areas on the edge of the cultural landscape. In between there is a period of rest that is spent in the thicket standing upright.

During courtship, the collar is spread open and then extends over the front of the beak. The clutch consists of 6–12 elongated oval, beige to whitish eggs 46–53 mm long and 34–37 mm wide. The incubation period is 22–23 days.

literature

Web links

Commons : Chrysolophus amherstiae  - album with pictures, videos and audio files