Silver Pheasant

Silver Pheasant ( Lophura nycthemera )

The Silver Pheasant ( Lophura nycthemera ) is a Hühnervogelart from the family of pheasant -like, which is common in southern China, parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina and the island of Hainan. It inhabits mountain forests 600-2100 m altitude. The silver pheasant probably forms with the Kalifasan ( Lophura leucomelanos ) is a super species.

Description

The body length of the nominate of the silver pheasant is 92-96 cm, the tail of the cock between 60 and 75 cm, in the female between 24 and 32 cm. The wing length is the cock 265-297 mm, 240-260 mm in the female. The focus is on the tap at 1.6 kg. The hen is slightly lighter at 1.3 kg.

The tap of the silver pheasant wearing a tight, langfedrige hood. It's like chin, throat, the front side of the neck and the bottom shiny blue-black. The featherless game around the eye is bright red, the iris orange yellow and the beak greenish white with dark base. The sides of the neck and the neck, which is usually covered by the hood, are white as the top, which also carries a fine black drawing of parallel V-shaped angles that are larger toward the wings. The wing feathers and the outer feathers wearing a similar drawing. At the other tail-feathers the white portion increases and the middle pair is pure white. The legs are carmine.

The hen of the nominate is mostly monochrome olive brown with indistinct mottling and bright feather shafts. The hood springs show black lace and chin and throat are white speckled gray. The underside is brown and sometimes wears a white or light gray dashes. The central feathers are brown with a black and white banding, which is to the outer towards a dark curl. The eye area is like the rooster featherless and red, but not so extensive.

Dissemination

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 east to Fujian and Zhejiang perhaps, includes the island of Hainan, and extends south to Cambodia and Thailand, and westward as far as Myanmar.

Geographical variation

The geographical variation is quite pronounced, a distinction is 15 subspecies. When the taps especially the color of the top, which is, in some subspecies overall very white rather gray in the nominate race, which is also the largest varied. In addition, differences show up in length and drawing of the tail. The hens vary considerably in coloration. In some subspecies they are almost monochrome, drawn quite contrasting in others.

• L. l oatesi ( Ogilvie Grant, 1898) - Rakhine State in Myanmar
• L. L. lineata ( Vigors, 1831) - Southern Myanmar Irrawaddy from south to western Thailand
• L. l crawfurdi (JE Gray, 1829) - Bago and the northern Tanintharyi Division eastward to northwestern Thailand
• L. occidentalis n Delacour, 1948 - Northwest of Yunnan and northeastern Myanmar
• N L. rufipes ( Oates, 1898) - north of Shan State in Myanmar Irrawaddy and Salween between
• L. n ripponi ( Sharpe, 1902) - south of the Shan State between the Irrawaddy and Salween
• L. n jonesi Oates, 1903 - southwestern Yunnan, northern and mid- southern Thailand and the Shan State in Myanmar between Salween and Mekong
• L. n omeiensis Cheng, Chang & Tang, 1964 - Sichuan
• L. Tan Yao n rongjiangensis 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, and northern Vietnam
• L. n whiteheadi ( Ogilvie - Grant, 1899) - Hainan
• L. n fokiensis Delacour, 1948 - Northwestern Fujian and Zhejiang perhaps
• L. n berliozi ( Delacour & Jabouille, 1928) - western spur 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 south-eastern Thailand
• L. n annamensis ( Ogilvie - Grant, 1906) - Southern Vietnam

Habitat

The silver pheasant settled in China mountain forests, bamboo groves, dense bushland and Farndickichte at altitudes 1500-1800 m. In Vietnam, it is found in tropical rain forests above 900 m as well as in evergreen broad-leaved and pine forests above 1200 m.

System

The systematics of this kind has long been controversial. The area of ​​distribution of the silver pheasant on the east by that of Kalifasans and there are mixed populations, have made as new species in the 19th century to much confusion their descriptions. Both species have been described in a total of 49 taxa and 28 species. Jean Théodore Delacour put them in a revision in 1949 in a super species with two species and 12 subspecies and 15 leucomelanos nycthemera subtypes. On the assignment of three subspecies came in the 1990s to doubt. The subspecies of gray to dark gray Kalifasans have legs and feet and are different from those of the silver pheasant, which have red legs and feet. An exception was previously the three eastern subspecies of L. l Kalifasans oatesi, lineata and crawfurdi, the east of the Irrawaddys occur and in this as in other features already reconciled to the silver pheasant. The feathers of the upper surface are more or less dashed fine white to repeatedly draw a V-shape, the middle tail-feathers pale to white. The feet have a partly reddish to red color as the silver pheasant. A study of mitochondrial DNA showed in 2003 that they the silver pheasant are in fact closer than the Kalifasan and have to be incorporated in the former type. Another result was that probably not all of the subspecies of the Silver Pheasant deserve such a status, as they are rather parts of klinal varying populations that are not genetically different.