Glossy green-tailed pheasant
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Glossy green- tailed pheasant ( Lophophorus lhuysii ) |
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| Lophophorus lhuysii | ||||||||||
| Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , 1866 |
The glossy green- tailed pheasant ( Lophophorus lhuysii ), also known as the Chinese glossy pheasant , China-glossy pheasant or green - tailed monkey , is a rare monotypical type of glossy- colored pheasant from the Chinese highlands. It is the largest species within the genus of the glossy pheasant. The population of the green-tailed glossy pheasant is classified as vu (= vulnerable - endangered).
The species was named after the French foreign minister and ambassador Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys .
features
The rooster reaches a body length of 76 to 80 centimeters, the hen remains somewhat smaller with 72 to 75 centimeters. The weight of the males is about 3.6 kilograms. The females are lighter and weigh around 3.2 kilograms. There is a pronounced gender dimorphism .
male
The males have brightly colored, iridescent plumage. Madge et al. describe him as the glossy pheasant with the most iridescent plumage.
The forelock on the back of the head consists of bright bronze-colored and shimmering purple feathers. The rest of the head plumage is iridescent green. The chin, throat and front part of the neck are black, in some individuals these also shimmer green. The neck and upper back are shiny bronze in color. In contrast, the shoulders and the inner upper wing-coverts are blue-green and merge into a purple at the respective tips. The remaining elytra are blue-green. The wings are black. The rear ridge and the short upper tail-coverts are pure white, which is usually not visible in the erect green-tailed pheasant because of the closed wings. The long upper tail coverts are purple blue. The tail feathers are shimmering blue-green with small white spots on the outer feathers. On the underside of the body, the glossy green-tailed pheasant has black plumage, the individual feathers have narrow, very shiny green and bluish feather edges.
The iris of the males is brown and surrounded by a pale blue orbital ring. The beak is blackish horn-colored. The feet and legs are lead gray. He has a single spur on the legs.
female
The females have a small brown head of feathers on the back of their heads. They are creamy white on the chin and throat. The rest of the head, the neck and the entire underside of the body as well as the cloak and the wings are dark brown. The individual feathers have an isabel-colored shaft line and are narrow and evenly cross-banded in reddish brown. The back is almost white and merges into a pale gray with the upper tail ceilings. The upper tail-coverts are cross-banded black and red-brown. The control springs are black with rust-red cross bars. Her iris is brown, the orbital ring is pale blue, as in the male. The beak is horn gray and the feet yellowish gray. The females lack the spur on the legs.
The females show a similarity to the females of the Himalayan gloss pheasant . However, the distribution area of the two species does not overlap, so that there is little chance of confusion when observing outdoors.
Distribution and way of life
The occurrence of the glossy green- tailed pheasant is limited to the highlands of north and north-west Sichuan at an altitude of 3,300 to 4,500 m. The distribution area follows on from that of the white-tailed gloss pheasant , but according to current knowledge there is no area where the distribution of both species overlap.
The glossy green-tailed pheasant prefers alpine and subalpine meadows with rhododendron vegetation as a habitat. The extent to which it comes to lower altitudes in winter has not yet been conclusively investigated. Madge et al. suspect that there is only a small amount of altitude migration, as the glossy green-tailed pheasant either finds sufficient snow-free areas in its habitat and / or it is able to dig for food in the snow. Its diet consists of tubers, mosses and leaves and flowers. He is said to have a particular preference for plants of the genus Fritillaria .
Little is known about reproduction in the wild. It is possible that the glossy green-tailed pheasants do not brood every year. In captive, glossy green-tailed pheasants, a clutch consists of three to five eggs. It only breeds the female, the breeding period is 28 days. The males are fully grown at three years of age, the females at two years of age.
Danger
The glossy green-tailed pheasant is an endangered bird species in China . The 10,000 to 20,000 specimens (estimate by Birdlife) live in an area of 69,000 km², which was mainly affected by the timber industry. Furthermore, the plants that are part of its main diet are used in traditional Chinese medicine and the pheasants are occasionally hunted. Another risk factor is yaks overgrazing its food areas .
attitude
The glossy green-tailed pheasant is rarely kept in zoological gardens.
The first European import took place at the turn of the 20th century through the London Zoo , which could only acquire a single male. After that, the species was only sporadically preserved in the western world. The world's first breeding was not achieved until 1979 in the Beijing Zoo . The first US breeding was done by the San Diego Zoo in 1984, which had received a pair of this species from the Beijing Zoo in 1983. However, four of the five hatched chicks died of an infectious disease. Another offspring succeeded in 1987 with the female used after resorting to artificial insemination.
literature
- Del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A .; Sargatal, J. (2001) Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 2: New World Vultures to Guineafowl . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-15-6
- Fuller, Richard A.; Garson, Peter J. on behalf of the WPA / BirdLife / SSC Pheasant Specialist Group (2000) Pheasants: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan 2000-2004 ISBN 2-8317-0539-8
- Steve Madge , Philip McGowan and Guy M. Kirwan : Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse. A Guide to the Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, Grouse, Guineafowl, Buttonquails and Sandgrouse of the world. Christopher Helm, London 2002, ISBN 0-7136-3966-0 .
- Heinz-Sigurd Raethel : Chicken birds of the world. Natur Verlag, Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1991, ISBN 3-89440-440-X .
Web links
- Lophophorus lhuysii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2004. Accessed September 2 2016th
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Lophophorus lhuysii in the Internet Bird Collection
- Glossy green-tailed pheasant on Avibase
- Voice of the glossy green-tailed pheasant on Xeno-Canto
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c Raethel: Hühnervögel der Welt , p. 531.
- ↑ China-gloss pheasant on Avibase , accessed on September 1, 2016
- ↑ a b Lophophorus lhuysii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2004. Accessed September 2 2016th
- ↑ a b c d e Madge, McGowan and Kirwan: Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse . P. 291.
- ↑ Madge, McGowan and Kirwan: Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse . P. 90.
- ↑ a b Madge, McGowan and Kirwan: Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse . P. 292.
- ↑ a b c Raethel: Hühnervögel der Welt , p. 532.