Males have dark, shimmering
blue plumage, a white stripe on their wings and on the
tips of their secondary feathers, and blue edges on
the feathers below their backs. Their tail feathers
are long with white horizontal lines, and purplish-blue
feathers cover their chest and abdomen, which glimmer
in the sunlight. The edges of their feathers have royal
blue spots on them that look like fish scales, and the
naked areas of skin surrounding their eyes are blood
red in color.
Females
have smaller builds than males and olive brown plumage
covered with light, vertical specks. Their head and
neck are dark olive and greenish-brown, the naked skin
surrounding their eyes is dark red in color, their flight
feathers are dark brown with orange-brown horizontal
bars, and their tail feathers are chestnut brown with
clear black horizontal bars. Females also have brown
chests and abdomens with either black spots or white,
arrow-shaped patterns on them.
Behavior:
Mikado pheasants walk and search for their food at the same
time and have a wide diet that includes tender shoots, fruits,
the seeds of woody and herbaceous plants, insects, and earthworms.
The plumage of male birds is more brilliantly colored than
that of female birds, which tends to be dark chestnut in color.
Mikado pheasants primarily inhabit coniferous broad-leaved
forests, mixed coniferous broad-leaved forests, coniferous
forests, and dwarf bamboo plantations located at middle and
high elevations. When disturbed, they will slowly and cautiously
seek out shelter within surrounding shrubs, rather than trying
to fly away in a panic.
Habitat:
Mikado
pheasants are endemic to Taiwan and usually found on forest
floors, in small, thick bamboo shrubs, and on dwarf bamboo
plantations at 2000-3000m elevations.
