| Copper Pheasant | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Galliformes |
| Family: | Phasianidae |
| Subfamily: | Phasianinae |
| Genus: | Syrmaticus |
| Species: | S. soemmerringii |
| Binomial name | |
| Syrmaticus soemmerringii (Temminck, 1830) |
|
The Copper Pheasant, Syrmaticus soemmerringii also known as Soemmerring's Pheasant is a large, up to 136cm long, pheasant with a rich coppery chestnut plumage, yellowish bill, brown iris and red facial skin. The female is a brown bird with greyish brown upperparts and buff barred dark brown below. The male has short spur on its grey legs, none in female.
The Copper Pheasant is distributed and endemic to the hill and mountain forests of Honshū, Kyūshū and Shikoku islands of Japan, where it is known as yamadori (山鳥). The diet consists mainly of insects, arthropods, roots, leaves and grains.
The scientific name commemorates the German scientist Samuel Thomas von Sömmering.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, limited range and overhunting in some areas, the Copper Pheasant is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The Copper Pheasant appears in Japanese poetry as far back as poetry composed by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro in the early 8th century, as compiled in the Hyakunin Isshu:[1]
| “ | Ashibiki no yamadori no wo no shidari-wo no naga-nagashi yo wo hitori ka mo nemu
Must I sleep alone through the long autumn nights, long like the dragging tail of the mountain pheasant separated from his dove? |
” |