Beautiful birds of the pheasant family

Common Pheasant from The Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland. – Photo by Richard Crossley/Wikimedia Commons

AS a seven-year-old boy, one November, I visited my uncle who lived deep within the countryside six miles from my home. He decided to take me and my cocker spaniel for a walk to the croft (moorland) very near his house. He was a very skilled marksman and armed with his 12 bore double-barrelled rifle, I felt very safe on this bleak moorland covered with bracken, heather, and gnarled trees.

Suddenly, he swung his gun upwards to the sky and aimed at some large flying birds. ‘Bang, bang!’ and two pheasants came tumbling earthwards. He gave them to my mother to cook but first I had to pluck them of their feathers. I kept their very colourful feathers for years and often wondered why such a beautiful bird was ever found in Britain.

Pheasants were first recorded in England in 1059 AD and are now widespread through Britain and Ireland. It is thought that they were introduced from Asia by the Roman invaders. The common pheasant, which is now widespread throughout the world, is derived from the Chinese ring-necked, black-necked, and Mongolian breeds and thus vary in its plumage. They belong to an order of Galliformes or land fowls.

Its English name is derived from French via Latin and Greek to mean a bird from the River Phasis (now River Rhioni) which leads into the Black Sea to the south of the town of Poti, in Georgia. Globally there are nearly 70 species of pheasant.

Common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

The cock pheasant’s length is about 84cm, including its tail length and has a mottled chestnut and black back. A white collar around its neck marks its iridescent blue-green head. Its head is distinguished by its red, fleshy lobes hanging from its neck, commonly known as ‘wattles’. By comparison, the hen pheasant has a dull and buff coloured plumage, which is mottled so that she can lie low in autumnal fallen leaves and absolutely motionless when predators are about. These pheasants are ground dwelling birds and thus vulnerable to foxes, stoats, weasels, birds of prey and of course humans.

Proliferation

The rearing of pheasants in fox proof enclosures and their subsequent release for ‘shooting parties’ has become big business in rural economies in the UK. Here, nearly 50 million of these birds are annually shot in the air, employing ‘beaters’ to move along the ground to ‘flush out’ the birds. The shooting season starts in October.

On our daily walks, my aged Vizsla dog and I, frequently and inadvertently, ‘flush out’ up to 20 pheasants, the offspring of a pheasant rearing farm near to my home. These were released into the wild upon the sale of the farm and the new owner has better ideas of land management. So far, these pheasants have not been infected by avian flu and I pray that they remain resistant. The hen pheasant lays between 10 and 15 olive-green eggs from April to June in a well-hidden grass nest with the chicks hatching after 23 to 27 days.

Threat to snakes

The common viper or adder is Britain’s only venomous snake and is now on the brink of extinction by 2032 because of the proliferation of pheasants! Pheasants kill reptiles on sight, pecking at the adult snake and swallowing young snakes whole. The adder’s venomous bite seldom penetrates the pheasant’s closely woven feathers. Adders are most active in the summer months and years ago I feared for my dog but this last summer the fear subsided.

Malaysia has many more species of pheasant and in this article, I shall concentrate on just three, typically found in Borneo; the Crested fireback (Lophura ignita), the Malayan crested argus (Rheinardia nigrescens), and the Great Argus (Argusianus argus).

Crested fireback

Found in the submontane primary forests of the Thai-Malaysian Peninsula, Borneo, and Sumatra, this species, eight years ago, was split into two subspecies: the lesser Bornean crested fireback and the greater Bornean crested fireback. These are medium sized birds up to 70cm in length with a peacock-like dark crest, bluish-black plumage and black wings and a tail of brownish yellow. With whitish legs and bare blue facial skin, it is easily recognised.

Omnivorous in diet, they feed on plants, fruit, and small animals. The female lays four to eight creamy white eggs. These birds are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because of their loss of habitat and over hunting.

Malayan crested argus pheasant

This bird is distinguished by two head-crests and when alarmed, the back of the head crest is erected as it is when in mating courtship displays. It has a dark brown spotted back, a pink beak and blue skin around its eyes. Owing to the length of its 12 tail feathers, measuring up to 1.73 metres, its overall length varies between 1.9 to 2.4 metres. The female is much shorter at about 75cm. Whilst it resembles a peafowl in stature, it is undoubtably a member of the pheasant family.

Diet and breeding

It feeds mostly on invertebrates, molluscs, amphibians, very small reptiles, bamboo shoots, fruit, and fungi and is a very shy, elusive bird. Little is really known about the mating habits of this bird other than the fact that their nesting sites are high up on steep escarpments. Producing one or two large eggs, the female and male take turns in incubating these eggs for up to 25 days. Their chicks hatch with well-developed wing feathers and are fed by both parents. During the rainy season, this crested argus takes to the branches of emergent trees in the primary forest for days on end.

Great Argus pheasant

This bird is a master of camouflage, which Arthur Russell Wallace recalls, in his famous book, ‘The Malay Archipelago’, thus: “its sober colours … must harmonise with the dead leaves among which it dwells and renders it inconspicuous.”

The Great Argus Pheasant is a master of camouflage. – Photo by Sandy Cole/Wikimedia Commons

Dr Eric Mjoberg, in his 1930 book entitled ‘Forest Life and Adventures in the Malay Archipelago’, devotes a whole chapter to this bird and in conclusion records that “the flesh is very poisonous, owing to the fact that the Argus pheasant feeds almost entirely on a number of poisonous forest fruits”.

Resplendent plumage

Characterised by its distinctive blue head and neck and reddish-brown breast, it has black, almost hair-like, feathers on its crown and nape and red legs. With a tail measuring up to 140cm, the cock species is one the largest of pheasants with a total length of between 160cm to 200cm and weighs between 2kg and 3kg. They also sport very long tail feathers and very broad and elongated secondary wing feathers decorated with eyespots.

The hens, by comparison, are much smaller and duller in colouration, possessing shorter tails and fewer eyespots. Measuring 70cm to 76cm in total length, they weigh between 1.6kg and 1.7kg.

Habitat and behaviour

These birds may be sometimes seen in primary of Borneo, Sumatra, and Peninsular Malaysia in early mornings and evenings. Little is actually known about their breeding other than the fact that the hen lays two eggs with male chicks developing their adult plumage when three years old. They are very elusive birds.

At mating time, the male finds an open place in the forest and prepares a dancing spot by clearing leaves with its wings and feet. He then attracts females with his loud calls and then dances before them with his wings outspread thus creating two large fans waving across his body. These wings reveal hundreds of eyespots, yet his real eyes are hidden behind the fanning wings.

I once saw one of these magnificent birds on a daybreak stroll along a path at Danum Valley in Sabah, hearing its shrill call before I actually saw it. Upon seeing me, it rapidly scuttled into the undergrowth.

This beautiful bird is still hunted primarily for its feathers and like the Crested fireback is classified as Vulnerable on IUCN Red List.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3B7a4zv
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