The brown-eared pheasant (''Crossoptilon mantchuricum'') is a large, 96– to 100-cm-long, dark brown

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family (biology), family Phasianidae in the order (biology), order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera na ...

endemic to the mountain forests of northeastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

and nearby provinces). The species was first described by

Robert Swinhoe Robert Swinhoe FRS (1 September 1836 – 28 October 1877) was an English diplomat and naturalist who worked as a Consul in Formosa. He catalogued many Southeast Asian birds, and several, such as Swinhoe's pheasant, are named after him. Bio ...

in 1863. It has stiff white ear coverts behind the eyes, which look like a

moustache A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...

. The crown is black with red bare facial skin and its tail of 22 elongated, white feathers is curved, loose and dark-tipped. Both sexes are similar in plumage. The rarest member in the genus ''

Crossoptilon Eared pheasants are pheasants from the genus ''Crossoptilon'' in the family Phasianidae. Species Established by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1838, the genus contains four species: The name ''Crossoptilon'' is a combination of the Greek Greek m ...

'', its diet consists mainly of roots, bulbs, and plant matter. The female lays five to eight large, pale stone green eggs, which take 28 days to hatch. Due to isolated populations,

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

, and poaching (despite being a protected species), the brown eared pheasant is evaluated as vulnerable on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. It is listed on Appendix I of

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet

Red Data Book
{{Taxonbar, from=Q790606

brown eared pheasant The brown-eared pheasant (''Crossoptilon mantchuricum'') is a large, 96– to 100-cm-long, dark brown pheasant endemic to the mountain forests of northeastern China ( Shanxi and nearby provinces). The species was first described by Robert Swi ...

Birds of China Endemic birds of China

See also

References

External links