The Lady Amherst's pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) is a bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khrusolophos, "with golden crest".
The English name and amherstiae commemorates Sarah Countess Amherst, wife of William Pitt Amherst, Governor General of Bengal, who was responsible for sending the first specimen of the bird to London in 1828.
The
species is native to southwestern China and far northern Myanmar, but has been
introduced elsewhere, and has established a self-supporting, but now believed
extinct, feral population in England, the stronghold of which was in West
Bedfordshire. Lady Amherst first introduced the ornamental pheasant on her
estates, near the Duke of Bedford's Woburn Abbey, where they were also shot for
game and the introduced populations in England will interbreed. However since
late 2015 the species has been believed to be extinct in the wild in Great
Britain with no confirmed sightings since March 2015.
The
adult male is 100–120 cm (23 in.) in length, its tail accounting
for 80 cm of the total length. It is unmistakable with its nuchal cape
white black, with a red crest. The long grey tail and rump is red, blue, dark
green, white and yellow plumage. The "cape" can be raised in display.
This species is closely related to the golden pheasant (C. pictus), but has a
yellow eye, blue-green bare skin around it. The bill is horn-coloured and they
had blue-gray legs.
The
female is much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over,
similar to that of the female common pheasant (P. colchicus) but with finer
barring. She is very like the female golden pheasant, but has a darker head and
cleaner underparts than the hen of that species.
Despite
the male's showy appearance, these birds are very difficult to see in their
natural habitat, which is dense, dark forests with thick undergrowth.
Consequently, little is known of their behaviour in the wild.
They
feed on the ground on grain, leaves and invertebrates, but roost in trees at
night. Whilst they can fly, they prefer to run, but if startled they can
suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive wing sound. The male
has a gruff call in the breeding season.
Justification:
This
species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for
Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2
combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or
population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation).
Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the
decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for
Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years
or three generations). The population size may be moderately small to large,
but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the
population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing
decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a
specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as
Least Concern.
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