Long, black-tailed pheasant;
sea pheasant; black pheasant
Features:
Male
Female
Body
length
72-87cm
46-52cm
Wing
length
21.5-23cm
18.5-21.5cm
Tail
length
52-60cm
17-21cm
Body
color
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.
