Elliot Pheasant

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Elliot Pheasant
Rooster of the Elliot Pheasant

Rooster of the Elliot Pheasant

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Chicken birds (Galliformes)
Family : Pheasants (Phasianidae)
Genre : Bind tailed pheasants ( Syrmaticus )
Type : Elliot Pheasant
Scientific name
Syrmaticus ellioti
( Swinhoe , 1872)
Syrmaticus ellioti

The Elliot's Pheasant ( Syrmaticus ellioti ) is a Hühnervogel art from the family of pheasant-like . It is native to eastern China south of the Yangtze and lives there in subtropical forests and secondary biotopes, but also in the cultural landscape.

The specific epithet honors the American ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot .

description

The cock reaches a length of about 80 cm, of which about 42-47 cm is accounted for by the tail. The wing length is between 230 and 240 mm, the weight between 1 and 1.3 kg. The hen is smaller at 50 cm in length, the tail considerably shorter at around 17–19.5 cm. The wing length is between 210 and 225 mm, the weight around 800–900 g.

The unfledged, red eye region of the rooster is provided with erectable lobes, the iris is orange-brown, the beak is yellowish horn-colored. The chestnut brown of the parting merges into the whitish-gray area of ​​the neck and the sides of the neck, which is more brownish in the area of ​​the cheeks and ear covers and dark gray in the neck and clearly contrasts with the black on the chin, throat and front neck. The plumage on the chest and front back is lively chestnut brown to copper-colored, the individual feathers have a subterminal, black band and are broadly lined with a reddish copper color. The shoulder plumage and the wing-coverts are similar, but the small wing-coverts are broadly lined with metallic blue, the large ones have a black subterminal band and white tips that form a clear, white band. This runs parallel to the narrower black and white band from the tips of the otherwise chestnut-colored arm wings, which contrasts with the matt brown hand wings. White ribbons also run from the shoulders in a V-shape over the back and down into the black plumage of the lower back and rump, which appears to be scaled white due to wide hems. The lower breast and the belly are also white due to the wide hems, the reddish-brown feathers can be seen on the flanks. The 16 control feathers are broadly banded in white and reddish brown, the individual fields are separated from one another by narrow black lines. The legs are gray, the thigh plumage red-brown with white edges.

The plumage of the hen is generally less noticeable brownish, the top is dominated by reddish brown, the underside by whitish fringes. The beak is horn-colored brown. The chin, throat, and front neck are black. The rest of the head and neck are monochrome gray-brown, tipped a little reddish and blackish on the vertex. The red-brown feathers of the upper chest and the front back have white shaft lines and subterminal black bands, the reddish-brown shoulder feathers have gray tips. The lower back and rump are scribbled in black on a reddish-brown background. The brown plumage on the underside is lined with white from the lower breast and flanks. The hems get wider and wider towards the belly and make the middle of the underside look almost completely whitish. The cover plumage of the wings is mostly scrawled brown-black and shows black, subterminal central spots and a light gray end border. The wings are matt black-brown with interrupted, reddish-brown edges. The joint is mainly maroon, cross-banded with black and lined with white. Only the middle pairs are light brown with dark scribbles and light bands and tips.

voice

The sound repertoire is not very large. The alarm and excitement call is a high-pitched but not loud screech and a descending series of whistles. In addition, deep, gurgling and cackling sounds are described.

Distribution and existence

Distribution of the Elliot Pheasant

The distribution of the Elliot Pheasant is limited to southeast China and extends from east Guizhou and west and south Hunan via Guangxi and Guangdong to Jiangxi , in the south from Hubei and Anhui to Zhejiang and Fujian . Originally, the monotypic species probably only appeared in the Jianxi, Anhui, Zhejiang and Fukien areas. Their original habitat is now very fragmented and the species probably suffered strong population declines there at times. However, since the Elliot Pheasant was able to move to secondary habitats in the cultural landscape and recently expanded its area significantly to the west, the endangerment situation has changed significantly. Survey data from the last decades suggest a wider distribution, a higher frequency in some places and higher population densities than previously assumed. The population is estimated at over 100,000 individuals and the hazard category has been downgraded by the IUCN from “vulnerable” to potentially endangered (“near threatened”). However, threats still exist today in the form of advancing, sometimes illegally, deforestation and hunting.

Way of life

The Elliot Pheasant lives primarily in subtropical deciduous and mixed forests with a dense canopy, more rarely in shrub vegetation at heights between 200 and 1900 m. In the cultural landscape, however, it also colonizes secondary habitats such as dense undergrowth of bamboo, ferns and bushes and even occurs in uniform forests and grasslands.

The breeding biology is known almost exclusively from captivity, where courtship begins between late January and mid-February. As with the pheasant , the claim to territory is expressed by a noisy wing vortex. The courtship is a simple side courtship in which the rooster presents the drawing on the back and the tail feathers. The clutch consists of 6–8 short oval, light to reddish beige eggs that are 42 × 33 mm in size and are incubated for 25 days.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BirdLife species factsheet, s. Web links

Web links

Commons : Elliot Pheasant  - Collection of images, videos and audio files