Mrs. Hume's Pheasant

" Couple of Burma Pheasant " from The Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon by Charles Henry Marshall and Allan Octavian Hume ( 1880)

The Burma pheasant or Humefasan ( Syrmaticus humiae ) is a Hühnervogelart from the family of pheasant -like. It occurs in two geographically isolated subspecies. P h humiae inhabits the extreme east of India and the West, Myanmar, S. h burmanicus parts of western China and eastern Myanmar south to Thailand. The species lives in open subtropical forest land, which is mixed by rocks and grass -covered glades.

With the epithet of Allan Octavian Hume Erstbeschreiber honored his wife Mary Ann Grindall Hume. In English, the kind therefore often called "Mrs Hume's Pheasant ". On a trip through Manipur Hume saw the tail feather of a bird in the unfamiliar chicken headdress of a carrier and was later captured by locals living birds.

Description

The cock pheasant of Burma reaches a body length of about 90 cm, 40-54 cm attributable to the tail. The wing length is 206-225 mm, the body weight of about 1 kg. The hen is about 60 cm long, the tail makes it 20 cm from. The wing length is 198-210 mm, weight about 650 g

When you tap the nominate the olive gray of the crown passes to the neck and the sides of the head in the velvety black feathers from the rest of the head and the neck, which acts metallic dark blue with large, shiny seams. The red eye area is provided featherless and with extensible cloth. About the same, there is a narrow strip of white feathered. The iris is orange brown, horn-colored beak greenish. The body plumage is predominantly lively auburn to copper-red gloss, the feathers of the breast wearing a dark blue, subterminal spot. At the middle of the belly plumage seems a bit spotty. White bands of the shoulders run a v-shape on the back. Lower back and rump are metallic dark blue, white seams form a scale pattern. The light gray upper tail-coverts take center an indistinct dark transverse band. The middle pair of tail feathers is light gray and bears in wide intervals narrow maroon cross belts, which are limited to narrow down rump black, the tail end respectively in the basic color pass. On the following outward tail feathers is also mentioned a maroon Subterminalbinde, the outer one white bottom seams. The shoulder feathers are maroon, the middle coverts black with metallic blue sheen. The large coverts and secondaries are the maroon colors and wearing a white towards the tip contrasting black hem. When folded wings arise from two narrow white, parallel binding. The brown primaries wear maroon seams. The legs and feet are light brown matte.

The hen is very similar to that of the Elliotfasans but generally paler and shows a brown throat. The tan front neck and upper chest can be spotted with black. The Federsäume the bottom are more yellowish beige than white.

Voice

The Revierruf crowing of the cock is a Rufreihe that as tschärapär tschärapär tschär tschär tschäria tschäria sounds about. As contact calls are a loud tschuk and a muffled baked. The latter is also released as a loud wake-up call. During mating type valves hissing sounds. In addition, various cackling and clucking sounds are described.

Distribution and population

The Burma Pheasant occurs in the extreme east of India, in parts of Myanmar, Western China and in the far north of Thailand. There are two disjoint areas that fall into each of a subspecies. This one goes in Northeast India from the states of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland to the Chin state in western Myanmar. The second extends in Southwest China over parts of Yunnan and Guangxi in the Northeast and Myanmar and Thailand.

The population in India is estimated to be of about 4000, in Myanmar to about 6000 birds. For China, there is no information in Thailand and between 200 and 500 birds of this species are suspected. The total population is estimated at less than 20,000 birds. In India, the species seems to be rare, but in 2002 upon detection of numerous previously unknown deposits were discovered, while others could not be confirmed again. In Myanmar, there are no signs of population decline, this could be the kind have slightly extended their distribution. In China, the stocks are stable and otherwise probably declined sharply only in reserves. In Thailand, a slight decrease can be noted. The IUCN is the way to the early warning ( "near threatended ").

Geographical variation

There are described two subspecies which hens can not be distinguished. When Hahn S. h burmanicus are the blue areas of the top stronger and more reddish, the head and neck but clearly deposed against the back and less extensive than in the nominate form. On lower back and rump feathers more black, the white seams are wider. A size difference between the subspecies do not exist.

• P h humiae ( Hume, 1881) - northeastern India and western Myanmar
• P h burmanicus ( Oates, 1898) - Western China, northeastern Myanmar and extreme northern Thailand

Way of life

In contrast to the other species of the genus of Burma pheasant is not extremely high- forest dwellers. It comes in mountainous regions before 1200-1300 m, where he settled dry, subtropical forests on slopes, the, bush and grassland are interspersed of open, rocky terrain. He prefers mosaic-like structures and successional stages with adjacent dense trees. In natural habitats, forest fires could play an important role. The food consists among other things of acorns and termites.

The Code of the way the pheasant is similar. In winter, companies that dissolve in March and April form. The claim area of the faucet is announced by an audible wing vortex and the courtship is initiated by a feed curls of the faucet. In addition to simple Seitenbalz a Frontalbalz is described in which the rooster wings, shield -like spreads and prepares the tail.

Nests were found from March to May. They consist of 6-10 broadly oval, cream-colored to reddish- white eggs of 48x35 mm in size, which are incubated for 27 days.