Exotic pheasants

Would you like to know which are the exotic pheasants? Would you like to know about exotic pheasant breeds? Are you interested in knowing more about their feeding, location, reproduction and origin? Find here a list of exotic pheasants and learn about these fascinating asian birds.

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1. Silver pheasant

Pheasant scientific name: Lophura nycthemera

The Silver pheasant is an exotic bird that is included within the Gennaeus genus, it is also considered a reference of the Lophura genus, it is a bird that belongs to the Phasianidae family. The body of the male measures up to 125 cm from head to tail and weighs a maximum of 2 kilograms. It has striking colors on the body and its tail is white. Its chest and lower body have dark blue feathers, it has a red area on its face.

The female is brown with an orange face, has pink legs, small feathers on the head, its tail is of medium size, due to these characteristics the females go unnoticed and are not recognized as silver pheasants, however if they belong to this species. The female is strong and quite fast. It has a length from head to tail between 55-90 centimeters. The tail is 24 to 32 centimeters. Its weight ranges between 1 and 1.3 kilograms.

2. Lady Amherst’s pheasant – Exotic pheasants

Pheasant scientific name: Chrysolophus amherstiae

The Lady Amherst Pheasant is a bird originating in Tibet and Southwest China that reaches the north of Burma, however in free form it is also found in England. Its name comes from the wife of a former governor of Bengal who sent the first specimen of this exotic bird to London.

This type of pheasant has sexual dimorphism just like the silver pheasant, but in this case it is much more evident. Its flight is short and prefers to use its legs to move. The adult male can weigh approximately 800 grams and measures between 100 and 120 centimeters, with a wingspan of 78 centimeters.

3. Common pheasant

Pheasant scientific name: Phasianus colchicus

The common pheasant, also called the common pheasant, a bird with extremely beautiful and admirable characteristics. It is a beautiful exotic bird of Asian origin, characterized by its colors and the length of its tail. These birds are scattered throughout the world, because throughout history they have been hunted and transferred to different countries.

It is important to note that by the 10th century, common pheasants already inhabited the British Isles, as the Romans had brought them, but there were different problems, because by the 17th century, pheasants were disappearing and the species was in danger of extinction, an unfortunate fact, because even though this bird is not native to Europe it is a distinctive bird of Asia, and the habitat that had been created on another continent was slowly disappearing.

4. Red pheasant

Pheasant scientific name: Chrysolophus pictus

It is a species of galliform bird native to China, Burma and some other areas of Asia. Their diet is varied, they eat insects, leaves, grasses, and flower petals. In their natural state they roam the prairies, it is not common to see them in the forests. At present they are a protected species since their population is decreasing.

The plumage in the male is yellow on the head followed by a series of feathers that cover the orange neck with a black tip, its back is green and yellow, the chest is crimson red, the wings are blue above and brown, its tail is very long of golden color and adorned by some red feathers. The female is brown in color so that her predators do not discover her during the breeding season. The feathers of these exotic pheasants are so pretty and sometimes are compared with the color of the feathers of the exotic hummingbirds.

5. Golden pheasant

Pheasant scientific name: Chrysolophus pictus

These exotic pheasants are native to the forests in the mountainous areas of western China, it is distributed in the southeast of Chinghai, south and west of Kansu, the south of Shensí, west of Hupeh, south and west of Hunan, also in northwestern Yunnan. Some of the wild populations have established themselves in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. In England they can be found in East Anglia in the dense forest landscape of the Breckland. However, wild populations of these game birds have become established in Florida, the US, the UK, and elsewhere.

Regarding its physiology, the male is slightly older than the female and has distinctive colors throughout its body. The male’s body is red, his coat is orange with each edge of his feathers black. The long plumage of its head is yellow-orange. Around his eyes it is red with a yellow marking. The plumage on its back is blue, dark red and yellow. Its tail, at the base has long red feathers and for the rest of it a black with chestnut color with a cinnamon tip.