Swinhoe's Pheasant
Lophura swinhoii
Taiwan
 

Measurements

Length: 50 to 80cm

Diet

Swinhoe's pheasants have a varied diet, including acorns, berries, flower buds, leaves and other plant material, as well as a few earthworms, millipedes, termites and other insects.

Identification

There is a large white patch on the upper back, the shoulders are maroon and the wing-coverts are metallic greenish-black. The long central tail feather is white. Hens are mostly brown, speckled with triangular yellowish-buff markings. First year males look similar to adult males, but are duller and the white patch on the back is mottled brown.

Behaviour

During the breeding season, from March until July, males perform impressive courtship displays to entice females to mate (4). This involves flaunting their brilliant metallic plumage and erecting their white crest and red face wattles, while they bob their head up and down, jump around and whirr their wings.

 

  

Distribution & Habitat

Mountainous forests of central Taiwan.

Reproduction

Peak egg-laying probably occurs in March to May. Nests are built in highly secretive, well hidden places under large shelters, such as at the foot of a tree or under rocks. Clutches of 3 to 8 eggs are laid and then incubated for around 25 days by the female alone.
The bird was named after the British ornithologist Robert Swinhoe, who first described the species in 1862.

Conservation

Classified as Appendix 1 under CITES. This species became critically endangered fifty years ago but numbers have recovered after the introduction of in-situ conservation measures.