Lady Amherst's Pheasant

Portrait of a male pheasant diamond

The diamond pheasant or Amherst ( Chrysolophus amherstiae ) is a Hühnervogelart from the family of pheasant -like, their dissemination from the southwest of central China extends to the south-eastern Tibet and into northern Myanmar. The Rooster is one of the most contrasty and colorful pheasants and is therefore often kept as closely related as the golden pheasant bird aviaries. The unscheinbarere hen is, however, predominantly red-brown and black banded. In England, the species was introduced from 1890, but there could only hold in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in free-living populations. In his home country of the diamond pheasant mountain forests, bamboo jungles and bushes settled at altitudes up to 4500 m.

The specific epithet honors Sarah Countess Amherst, the first diamond pheasant brought to England in 1828. She was the first wife of the then British Governor General in India, William Pitt Amherst.

Description

The tap of the diamond pheasant is 130-170 cm long, of which 86-115 cm on the tail. The wing length is 205-235 mm, weight about 750-850 g When the hen 's tail makes 31 to 37.5 cm of 66-68 cm body length from. The wing length is 183-203 mm, the weight is about 600 to 800 g

Forehead and crown are the cock metallic dark green, the glossy dark red hood 60 mm long, hard and radiate narrow feathers falling from the rear vertex to the neck. The featherless game around the eye is slightly spread out and bluish to greenish. The iris is bright yellow, the beak greenish yellow. The genus typical "collar" extends from the apex to the neck and on the sides of the chest. His wide, white feathers are rounded at the end, blue glossy black lined and contribute to the covered part of just such a straight line. The broad, rounded feathers on chin, throat, goiter sides and upper chest as well as the anterior dorsal shine metallic dark green. On the back they are black lined on the front wearing a subterminales, shiny black band and a broad, fringed, green-gold shiny bottom seams. The pure white underside shows only on the flanks and behind the legs black seams, black coverts shining green at the tips. The black secondaries contribute to the shield springs back a metallic blue sheen. The black- brown primaries are lined irregular white on the outer web. The rear back is intensely yellow feathered, the lateral springs and the front upper tail-coverts bright red with some black-green centers. The rear upper tail-coverts are up to 24 cm long. The basal part is on a white background black blue banded, the fields between black flecks. The distal part is vivid orange-red. The mean white control spring pair is roof-shaped in cross-section, such as the basal part of the upper tail-coverts black banded and spotted and scrawled in between. This pattern is also unclear on which is situated at the midshaft of the remaining tail feathers, black transverse bands extend to the broad, brown outer skirt of the flags. Legs and feet are bluish light gray.

The hen is similar to that of the gold pheasant. It differs from this, among other things by the more maroon coloration on the back, upper breast and flanks extends to the whitish belly and to expire at the bottom, light beige back. The black banding is generally stronger and wider. She is wearing a greenish metallic luster. The wave pattern on its back is also stronger. The throat is beige, reins, cheeks and ear-coverts silvery with black patches. The tail feathers are rounded at the end and black-beige quergebändert lots of contrast on maroon base and black scribbled. As the cock the eye area is unbefiedert. How legs and feet it is blue -gray slate- gray.

Voice

The sound repertoire of the species is poorly known. The Revierruf ( Sample ) is probably a warning sound. In addition, a Futterlockruf describes sounds like suppressed giggle.

Distribution and population

The dissemination of the diamond pheasant is more Western than that of the closely related gold pheasant and extends from about 31 ° N in the western Sichuan to the Salween to the southeast of Tibet. Southward it extends into the eastern part of Shan State in Myanmar and Yunnan and western Guizhou. In the area of ​​overlap of the two species, which is about the limit of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, hybridization occurs with the golden pheasant.

The population of the species is estimated to be less than 50,000 individuals. Despite a suspected stock decline, the IUCN sees them as not at risk ( " least concern ").

Way of life

The diamond pheasant is found in higher, cooler areas as the golden pheasant, where it inhabits wooded slopes, bamboo thickets and bushes up to altitudes of 4570 m. In winter, the species lives in groups of several families 20 to 30 birds, the breeding season it is probably monogamous. The foraging activity takes place in two phases, morning and evening, on open land on the edge of the cultural landscape. In between there is a rest period spent aufgebaumt in the thicket.

During mating, the collar is spread open and then reaches forward to over the beak. The nest consists of 6-12 oblong oval, beige to whitish eggs of 46-53 mm length and 34-37 mm width. Incubation period is 22-23 days.