Himalayan pheasant
| Himalayan pheasant | ||||||||||
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Himalayan pheasant (male) |
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| Lophophorus impejanus | ||||||||||
| ( Latham , 1790) |
The Himalayan gloss pheasant ( Lophophorus impejanus ), also known as the royal gloss pheasant , is a chicken native to Asia, but is kept as an ornamental bird around the world. It is also called red-tailed monkey.
The specific epithet impejanus was given to the glossy Himalayan pheasant in honor of Lady Mary Impey, wife of Sir Elija Impey, the first governor of Bengal. The glossy Himalayan pheasant is - under the name Danphe - the national bird of Nepal and is often mentioned in Nepalese songs. He is also the heraldic bird of the Indian state of Uttarakhand .
features
The glossy Himalayan pheasant has a massive, plump figure with strong legs, a short tail and a chunky beak. The male becomes up to 70 cm long (of which about 23 cm is accounted for by the tail) and weighs 2.5 kg; the female is slightly smaller. The wing length is 29 to 32 centimeters, the tail length 21.8 to 23.8 centimeters. In contrast to the male, the female never erects the hood.
The male is iridescent green, purple, red and blue in color, with a white rump spot, a copper-colored tail and a black underside and a feather crown. At the back of the head are some elongated feathers with spoon-shaped ends. The zoologist Tej Kumar Shrestha points out, however, that individuals often appear who deviate from this coloration. There are individuals with black tails and those with a metallic green underside. Melanistic individuals or partially albinotic males also occur. The plumage of the female is essentially plain brown with light shaft stripes and brown-black transverse lines, the throat is white. Both sexes have a blue eye ring. The iris is brown, the bill is brownish horn-colored in both sexes with a slightly more yellowish upper beak. The legs are yellowish to pale brown-green.
Subadult males are similar to females, but have more black on the upper side of the body and are spotted black and reddish-brown on the underside of the body. Himalayan gloss pheasants are fully grown after two years and have a life expectancy of around 30 years.
Occurrence
The range is very large compared to other pheasant species in the Himalayas. It occurs from eastern Afghanistan to the eastern border of Bhutan and parts of Tibet . It is still a relatively common bird in Nepal and occurs in Sagarmatha National Park and Langtang National Park , among others .
The glossy Himalayan pheasant lives in mountain forests with oaks, pines and rhododendrons and steep slopes with grass and herbs at an altitude of 2500 to 5000 m in the Himalayas . It also occurs in evergreen forests and deciduous forests in temperate climates and favors places with dense undergrowth here. When there is high snowfall, he hikes into lower mountains.
behavior
Himalayan gloss pheasants live in pairs and outside of the rutting season in small groups. They can often be seen while foraging on open alpine mats. Startled glossy Himalayan pheasants usually flee down the slope. They are good fliers, but usually seek cover on an ongoing basis.
The glossy Himalayan pheasant feeds on roots, tubers, shoots, seeds, acorns and berries, but also on insects and larvae, which are dug out of the ground with the shovel-like beak. The birds often search for food in unisexual groups of three to four animals. In winter, larger groups can also be found in climatically favorable places.
Reproduction
During the mating season, the male tries to attract females with loud calls. During the courtship ritual, the male puffs himself up, struts around and circles the female with an outstretched neck, trembling head of feathers and drooping wings. Sometimes the rooster also offers the hen a small stone or food. The male leaves the hen again when she starts breeding in spring to sometimes mate again.
Four to six cream-colored eggs with reddish-brown spots are placed in concealed floor hollows padded with leaves, moss and hay and incubated for 27 days.
literature
- Colin Harrison & Alan Greensmith: Birds. Dorling Kindersly Limited, London 1993, 2000, ISBN 3-8310-0785-3 .
- Bryan Richard: Birds. Parragon, Bath, ISBN 1-4054-5506-3 .
- Tej Kumar Shrestha: Wildlife of Nepal - A Study of Renewable Resources of Nepal Himalayas. Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 2003, ISBN 99933-59-02-5 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Lophophorus impejanus in the Internet Bird Collection
- Lophophorus impejanus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2014.