The yellow-bellied horned pheasant is a Chinese specialty bird that forages in groups of three or five in the Wuyanling National Nature Reserve in Zhejiang. In the spring breeding season, the male chicken becomes excited, with a pair of blue meat horns on his head and a bright meat skirt hanging in front of him, dancing in front of the hen, shaking the meat horn and the meat skirt to show his beauty.
△ The elf yellow-bellied pheasant in the deep mountains
Zhejiang Wuyanling National Nature Reserve is located in the northwest of Taishun County, Zhejiang Province. The terrain in Wuyanling Nature Reserve is complex, surrounded by mountains in the south, west and north, and there are many fault canyons. Spring is full of life, flocks of yellow-bellied pheasants foraging and courtship in the mountain forest, and the quiet mountain forest has become lively.
The yellow-bellied horned pheasant is a national first-class protected animal, inhabiting subtropical mountain evergreen broad-leaved forests and coniferous broad-leaved mixed forests, and is the main protection object of Zhejiang Wuyanling National Nature Reserve. In addition, it is also distributed in Jiangxi Wuyishan Nature Reserve.
△ Non-breeding males, figure/old reticulum
Yellow-bellied horned pheasant is a bird endemic to China, latin scientific name Tragopan caboti, is a pheasant of the order Pheasant, pheasant family, horned pheasant genus, also known as horned chicken, spit bird, shou chicken, the local people call it pheasant.
Although it lives deep in the mountains and forests, it is considered to be the "giant panda among birds", which is rare in number, rare and precious.
In terms of appearance, the appearance of the rooster and the hen is very different, the is beautiful, but the hen is like a Cinderella, very inconspicuous.
The rooster's feathers are very colorful, as if they have been carefully designed. The abdomen is yellow, the upper body is chestnut, and it is covered with pale yellow spots, which are sparse. The tail is bent downwards, appearing rounded.
What is particularly special is that every spring during the breeding season, the male yellow-bellied horned pheasant will have obvious changes, and the emerald blue horns that are usually hidden on the head will become longer and erect. That's why it was named the yellow-bellied horned pheasant.
Also, in front of him hung a brightly colored meat skirt. The usually inconspicuous meat skirt also gradually grew up, growing out of the throat, flattening out, and hanging in front of the body.
The meat skirt is a sign of the cock's maturity, showing a bright scarlet color, crisscrossed with emerald blue stripes, and the pattern is exquisite.
Female yellow-bellied horned pheasants, on the other hand, are tanned throughout, densely covered with black, brownish yellow and white fine lines, and have dark spots on the upper body. With this low-key appearance, there is no sense of presence in the mountains and forests.
In nature, hermaphroditism is very common, female yellow-bellied pheasant in the reproduction of more important responsibilities, in the process of egg laying, incubation, only as low as possible, let themselves into the surrounding environment, in order to hide themselves, not to be discovered by predators. This is the wisdom of animal survival.
△ Male yellow-bellied horned pheasant showing a meat skirt, photo/Shi Doosan
The yellow-bellied pheasant is often active and foraging in dense understory shrubs and grasses, feeding on the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of ferns and plants, as well as termites and caterpillars.
Food changes as the seasons change. According to the China Digital Science and Technology Museum, in spring, it mainly feeds on the young leaves and shoots of plants such as mountain cherries, camellias and yingshan red; in summer and autumn, it feeds on the fruits and seeds of strawberries, hanging hooks, tiger skin nan, mountain acacia and other plants; in winter, it mainly feeds on plant nuts and camellia seeds.
During the day, groups of three or five forage on the ground, rest in the trees at night, and if it snows in winter, the yellow-bellied pheasant is too lazy to get off the ground, staying in the trees all day and foraging on the treetops.
The yellow-bellied horned pheasant mainly runs on its feet, although it has wings but is not good at flying, if it is not forced, it will not even take off for a short distance. Only when forced to be helpless, will struggle to fly, but fly not high and not far.
Surviving in nature, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant relies mainly on dense woods to hide itself from predators. Their natural enemies, shrews, weasels, snakes, jays, etc. are all masters of hunting, and if the yellow-bellied horned pheasant is targeted, it has no power to fight back.
The pheasant has small guts and is not able to react. According to the researchers, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant is unresponsive, and if someone approaches it and it is too late to escape, it will bury its head in the grass and "hide" itself. But it doesn't know that most of its body is exposed, which is really a way to cover its ears and steal the bell, so it is a "dumb chicken".
△ Yellow-bellied horned pheasant courtship, photo/Shi Doushan
From March to May, the vibrant spring is the breeding season for the yellow-bellied horned pheasant. The male yellow-bellied horned pheasant, which had been silent for a winter, began to occupy a field of their own, divide the territory, and sing loudly in the morning to court the hens.
When the male is courting, he will constantly nod his head, unfold his tail feathers, flap his wings, alternately stomp his feet, make a chirp in his mouth, and perform a series of action performances, which is nothing more than to show his charm in front of the hen.
With its movements, the blue flesh horns on its head will constantly shake; the bright meat skirt in front of it will also shake and flutter, open and beautiful.
When it dances and jumps to the rise, the head hangs down, the tip of the mouth is facing the ground, so that the blue meat horn is displayed in front of the female bird, and the meat skirt in front of it is bigger and more beautiful. This is the male yellow-bellied horned pheasant, like a triumphant "general", showing his "merits" to others.
Despite this effort, if the hen can't see it leaving, it's still in vain. The rooster had to stop performing and wait for the next hen to arrive.
When the rooster finally gets the hen's favor, he will look more excited, and the meat skirt hanging under the throat will become more colorful. It will quickly rush up and mate with the hen.
△ Female yellow-bellied horned pheasant, photo/colorful coffee
Yellow-bellied horned pheasant hens choose to nest on shady slopes, hidden branches near the ridge, using fallen leaves or moss. According to China Green Times, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant lays a nest of eggs every year, and a litter of 3-4 pieces. From spawning, hatching to rearing, the hens do it alone.
After about a month of incubation, the chicks will break their shells. Incubation is very hard, the hen never leaves the nest easily, only once outside the day to forage, if it encounters rainy weather, you can not eat for two consecutive days, with the body for the unbroken baby shelter from the wind and rain.
Although the yellow-bellied pheasant loves her baby, it has many natural enemies, and bird eggs are often eaten by natural enemies such as jays and snakes, so the reproductive success rate is only about 10%.
Listen to the locals, the hen that is incubating, when it encounters someone, will not run, even if it takes a branch to poke it, it will not run.
If the situation is critical and forced to be anxious, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant can also use a single wing to hold the egg, run into the bushes and hide until the danger is lifted, and then move the bird eggs out of the nest and continue to hatch.
Fortunately, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant is an early adult bird, and after the chick breaks its shell, it stays under the warm body of the mother chicken for a few hours, and the feathers dry out, and then it can forage with the mother from the tree under the nest.
△ Male yellow-bellied horned pheasant in the non-breeding period
Many people are still quite unfamiliar with the yellow-bellied horned pheasant, but as early as the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen described in detail how detailed the form of the yellow-bellied horned pheasant was in estrus in the "Compendium of Materia Medica".
In 1857, the British biologist Gould named him based on a specimen collected from the WuyiShan Hangdun area of Fujian Province.
However, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant is rare, and more than a hundred years after its naming, no one has found and recorded it, so the yellow-bellied horned pheasant was once considered extinct in the wild.
In December 1978, Mr. Wu Mingchuan collected this bird in Gongcheng, Guangxi, and was identified by Academician Zheng Zuoxin as a new subspecies of the yellow-bellied horned pheasant, the Guangxi subspecies of the yellow-bellied horned pheasant.
Until 1981, Professor Zhuge Yang of Hangzhou University first discovered the yellow-bellied horned pheasant in Wuyanling. This unique and beautiful pheasant has once again entered people's field of vision.
However, the yellow-bellied horned pheasant was already scarce in number, and it was endangered in the late 1970s due to its extremely low natural reproductive ability, serious natural enemies, and shrinking habitat.
△ Dancing
The yellow-bellied horned pheasant is a beautiful and unique elf in the mountain forest, although a little clumsy, but the mother chicken is very protective of the chicks, and in case of danger, she will jump out to protect the yellow-bellied horned pheasant baby. If you see it deep in the mountains, don't hurt it.