Hume's Pheasant
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| Syrmaticus humiae Hume, 1881 |
The Hume's Pheasant, Syrmaticus humiae also known as Mrs Hume's Pheasant or Bar-tailed Pheasant is a large, up to 90cm long, forest pheasant with a greyish brown head, bare red facial skin, chestnut brown plumage, yellowish bill, brownish orange iris, white wingbars and metallic blue neck feathers. The male has a long greyish white, barred black and brown tail. The female is a chestnut brown bird with whitish throat, buff color belly and white-tipped tail.
This rare and little known pheasant is found throughout forested habitats in China, India, Myanmar and Thailand. The diet consists mainly of vegetation matters. The female lays three to twelve creamy white eggs in nest of leaves, twigs and feathers.
The name commemorates Mary Ann Grindall Hume, wife of the British naturalist in India Allan Octavian Hume.
Due to ongoing habitat lost, fragmented population and being hunted for food, the Hume's Pheasant is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2005). Syrmaticus humiae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 1 November 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened
