Silver Pheasant

The silver pheasant is strongly dimorphic. Males are 90–125 cm long, much of that length in a sweeping white tail; white upperparts are finely marked with black, contrasting with a glossy black underside, red face and red legs. Females are smaller, usually 55–90 cm, and mainly warm brown with dark barring, shorter tails and red facial skin. Plumage varies considerably among the many regional forms found across its broad Asian range (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives mainly in hilly and montane evergreen or mixed forest, also using bamboo, scrub and forest edges. Birds spend much of the day on the ground, walking or scratching for seeds, fallen fruit, shoots and invertebrates, but roost in trees and usually fly only when pressed. They occur singly, in pairs or small groups. Nests are shallow ground scrapes hidden under vegetation, and general species accounts report clutches commonly containing six to nine eggs (Handbook of the Birds of the World, general species account).