Silver pheasant
| Silver pheasant | ||||||||||
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Silver pheasant ( Lophura nycthemera ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Lophura nycthemera | ||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Silver Pheasant ( Lophura nycthemera ) is a Hühnervogel art from the family of pheasant-like , in southern China, parts of Myanmar , Thailand , Indochina and the island of Hainan is widespread. It lives in mountain forests between 600 and 2100 m altitude. The silver pheasant presumably forms a superspecies with the Kalifasan ( Lophura leucomelanos ) .
description
The body length of the nominate form of the silver pheasant is between 92 and 96 cm, that of the cock in the cock between 60 and 75 cm, in the hen between 24 and 32 cm. The wing length of the cock is 265–297 mm, that of the hen 240–260 mm. The weight of the tap is 1.6 kg. The hen is a little lighter at 1.3 kg.
The rooster of the silver pheasant wears a thick, long-feathered hood. Like the chin, throat, the front of the neck, and the underside, it is shiny blue-black. The featherless area around the eye is intense red, the iris orange-yellow and the beak greenish white with a dark base. The sides of the neck and the nape, which is usually covered by the hood, are white like the top, which also bears a fine, black drawing made up of parallel, V-shaped angles that become larger towards the wings. The wing springs and the outer control springs have a similar design. With the other tail feathers, the proportion of white increases and the middle pair is pure white. The legs are crimson.
The hen of the nominate form is mainly monochrome olive-brown with indistinct speckles and light pen shafts. The hood feathers show black tips and the chin and throat are speckled white-gray. The underside is brown and sometimes has white or light gray dashes. The middle control feathers are brown with black and white banding that becomes a dark undulation towards the outer ones. Like the rooster, the eye area is featherless and red, but not as extensive.
distribution
The distribution of the silver pheasant covers large parts of Southeast Asia. It extends from the southern Chinese provinces of Sichuan , Guizhou , Guangdong and Guangxi eastwards to Fujian and perhaps Zhejiang , includes the island of Hainan and extends southwards to Cambodia and Thailand and westwards to Myanmar .
Geographic variation
The geographical variation is quite pronounced, there are 15 subspecies. In the case of the roosters, the color of the upper side varies, which is rather gray in some subspecies and very white overall in the nominate form, which is also the largest. There are also differences in the length and drawing of the tail. The hens also vary significantly in color. In some subspecies they are almost monochrome, in others they are drawn quite contrasting.
- L. n. Occidentalis Delacour , 1948 - northwest of Yunnan and northeastern Myanmar
- L. n. Rufipes ( Oates , 1898) - North of Shan State in Myanmar between Irrawaddy and Saluen
- L. n. Ripponi ( Sharpe , 1902) - South of Shan State between Irrawaddy and Saluen
- L. n. Jonesi Oates , 1903 - southwestern Yunnan, northern and central Thailand and south of Shan State in Myanmar between Saluen and Mekong
- L. n. Omeiensis Cheng, Chang & Tang , 1964 - Sichuan
- L. n. Rongjiangensis Tan Yao Kuang & Wu Zhu Khang , 1982 - southeastern Guizhou
- L. n. Beaulieui Delacour , 1948 - southeastern Yunnan, northern Laos and northern Vietnam
- L. n. Nycthemera ( Linnaeus , 1758) - Guangdong and Guangxi as well as northern Vietnam
- L. n. Whiteheadi ( Ogilvie-Grant , 1899) - Hainan
- L. n. Fokiensis Delacour , 1948 - northwestern Fujian and possibly Zhejiang
- L. n. Berliozi ( Delacour & Jabouille , 1928) - western foothills of the Truong Son in Vietnam
- L. n. Beli ( Oustalet , 1898) - eastern foothills of the Truong Son in Vietnam
- L. n. Engelbachi Delacour , 1948 - Bolaven Plateau , southern Laos
- L. n. Lewisi (Delacour & Jabouille , 1928) - southwestern Cambodia and southeastern Thailand
- L. n. Annamensis ( Ogilvie-Grant , 1906) - southern Vietnam
habitat
The silver pheasant lives in China in mountain forests, bamboo groves, dense bushland and fern thickets at altitudes between 1500 and 1800 m. In Vietnam it is found in tropical rainforests above 900 m and in evergreen deciduous and pine forests above 1200 m.
Systematics
The systematics of this kind was controversial for a long time. The distribution area of the silver pheasant borders on that of the calf pheasant in the east and there are mixed populations whose descriptions as new species in the 19th century caused a great deal of confusion. Both species have been described in a total of 49 taxa and 28 species. In a revision in 1949, Jean Théodore Delacour placed them in a superspecies with two species as well as 12 leucomelanos subspecies and 15 nycthemera subspecies. Doubts arose in the 1990s about the assignment of three subspecies. The subspecies of the caliphatic pheasant have gray to dark gray legs and feet and thus differ from those of the silver pheasant, which have red legs and feet. So far, the three eastern subspecies of the Kalifasan L. l have been an exception . oatesi , lineata and crawfurdi , which occur east of the Irrawaddys and in this as in other characteristics lead to the silver pheasant. The feathers on the upper side are more or less finely dotted with white to multiple V-shaped lines, the middle tail feathers are light to white. The feet partly have a reddish to red color like the silver pheasant. A study of the mitochondrial DNA in 2003 showed that they are indeed closer to the caliph pheasant than the silver pheasant and to be incorporated into the former species. Another result was that not all of the subspecies of the silver pheasant deserve such a status, as they represent parts of clinically varying populations that do not differ genetically.
literature
- Heinz-Sigurd Raethel : Chicken birds of the world. Verlag J. Neumann-Neudamm GmbH & Co. KG, Melsungen 1988, ISBN 3-7888-0440-8 .
- S. Moulin, E. Randi, C. Tabbaroni, A. Hennache: Mitochondrial DNA diversification among the subspecies of the Silver and Kalij Pheasants, Lophura nycthemera and L. leucomelanos, Phasianidae , Ibis Vol. 145/1, January 2003, pp. E1-E11
Individual evidence
Web links
- Lophura nycthemera in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2009. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved on 30 September, 2010.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Lophura nycthemera in the Internet Bird Collection
- Lophura nycthemera photos in the Oriental Bird Club image database , accessed September 30, 2010