The Strange Peaks stand tall, and the Jade Mountain with its hills and ravines stretches for 300 kilometers! The main peak of Yushan Mountain is 3952 meters above sea level. Yushan Mountain is high and densely forested, the climate is unique, the precipitation is abundant and foggy, and the foggy days account for almost 2/3 of the year. In the mountain forest, a pair of birds that have been very rare in recent years, the emperor pheasant, like to come out in the rain and fog to find food, and they will also dance under the woods.
The forest is filled with mist, the figure of the emperor pheasant is light and beautiful, the female is looking down to feed, and the male is looking around, occasionally flaunting its wings and jumping lightly. The most interesting thing is that the male always follows the female, like a flower protector protecting the female.
Emperor pheasant is a pheasant family, long-tailed pheasant genus of birds, in China there are 4 species of long-tailed pheasant, namely black long-tailed pheasant, white-crowned long-tailed pheasant, black-necked long-tailed pheasant, of which black long-tailed pheasant, also known as emperor pheasant, is a national first-level protected animal.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the "noble" of the 01 birds: all day long with a red face, cloaked in purple-blue coats, dragging a half-meter-long tail</h1>
The Pheasant was inadvertently discovered, and it was identified as a new species with only two tail feathers! In 1906, the British ornithologist Guferro was in Alishan when he saw the indigenous people wearing pheasant tail feathers about 50 centimeters long on their heads. After bringing the two tail feathers back to study, it was found that the owners of the tail feathers were new species of birds.
British ornithologist Grant named it Calophasis mikado. "Mikado" is derived from The Japanese language, which translates to the Kanji for "Emperor" or "Imperial Gate". Chinese scientific name is the black long-tailed pheasant, commonly known as the emperor pheasant, whether it is a local or a bird watcher, they like to call it the emperor pheasant.
Male pheasants have red cheeks and purple-blue plumage throughout, with different visual effects from different angles, sometimes looking like pure black and sometimes shimmering with metallic brilliance. There are white spots on the wings, and the feathers are dotted with scallop-shaped markings, as if wearing a gorgeous coat.
The 16 black tail feathers are neatly placed behind them, the central tail feathers are the longest, about 50-53 cm, and the sides gradually become shorter. The tail feathers have neat sparse white horizontal spots, beautiful and noble, and are worn on the head by the local aborigines to symbolize status.
Looking at the appearance of the female bird, it is much less low-key, with olive brown throughout, V-shaped dark brown spots on the abdomen, and the tail is not as long and beautiful as the male.
Noble emperor pheasants often drag long-tailed feathers and stride high in the forest, unhurriedly and quite stylish. From the feather-colored posture to the behavior and activities, it reveals a graceful and noble temperament, which is really the "noble" among birds!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 "king" in the fog: the male bird follows the female bird, likes to go out to forage for food on rainy and foggy days, and can rotate his body in the air</h1>
The pheasant likes to live in high mountains, at an altitude of 2300-2550 meters above sea level, the original coniferous forest, grassland mixed area, is their ideal home, strangely, do not like to walk on the flat land, dedicated to secluded and steep areas to move. It is not an easy task to observe the emperor pheasant.
In the impression of bird watching enthusiasts, the emperor pheasant is magnificent, and it is always not clear enough to see it from a distance, because they always like to come out in the rain and fog, freely forage and dance in the mist, so they are called the king of the fog.
They are either alone or in pairs, with a gentle and quiet temperament. They like to come out in the early morning and dusk, and when it rains and fogs in the mountains, they are more active. According to zoologists, it should be to use the fog of rainy days as a barrier to expose themselves to predators.
Walk gracefully on steep mountain roads, pecking at birds with their beaks as you walk. It feeds on new leaves, young shoots, flowers, various berries, grass seeds, and also eats earthworms, ants, butterfly larvae and other insects. Occasionally swallow small stones to grind the food in the stomach to aid digestion.
At night, it will fly to the trees to sleep overnight, there is no fixed habitat, and when flying up and down, the tail feathers are open and very gorgeous. The pheasant often flew from one tree to another, in mid-air, when it was about to land, it was able to suddenly stop, and then use the long tail feather to control the direction, let the body rotate backwards, and land steadily on the trunk. In this process, the beautiful feathers and elegant posture of the emperor pheasant are revealed, like a fairy.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 handsome "lover": the male bird's cheeks turn bright red, jumping and fighting mates</h1>
From March to midsummer June, it is the best time for emperor pheasants to fall in love, get married, and have a baby, and often appear in pairs. However, there has been no exact scientific conclusion about the marriage of the emperor pheasant. After investigation and research, most scholars speculate that the emperor pheasant is monogamous, but some scholars believe that the emperor is polygamous.
The emperor pheasant male bird that enters the estrus period is like a handsome "lover". The flesh of the face becomes brighter red, and it is also extremely excited, often leading the neck to the chest, running towards the female, spreading its wings and fluttering rapidly, expressing the intention of courtship.
In order to gain the favor of female birds, males often fight between each other, first showing off their beauty, standing opposite and flapping their wings to face each other. When the heat is intense, the two male birds fly together, showing off their weapons, their claws to attack each other, and then fall to the ground, and so on several times.
Whenever the males fight, the females act as if they don't care about themselves and hang high, sometimes looking down at food not far away, sometimes stopping and going. Anyway, the victorious male bird will become its mate.
Before breeding, what the female bird has to do is to eat herself well and increase her weight, because it takes a lot of physical energy to lay eggs and incubate eggs.
Each clutch lays 3-5 eggs, and the female must complete the task of incubating and brooding alone, and for safety reasons, it builds the nest in a hollow under the rock of the steep slope, which is hidden around and not easy to be found.
Incubating the eggs is a hard job, and the female is conscientious every day, looking around and flipping the eggs from time to time, while combing the feathers to keep herself clean and tidy.
In the event of a thunderstorm, in order to ensure that the eggs are not wet, the female does not go out of the nest to forage for food all day. After about 28 days of incubation, the chicks are born out of their shells. In the summer, the female can be seen with several young birds foraging in the forest.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 "Flower Protector": The male would rather expose himself to predators than cover the female</h1>
Don't look at the male bird regardless of the incubation of eggs and the brooding, not a "good father", but it is a "flower protector"!
When going out to forage together, the male bird will be responsible for guarding and protecting the female bird, maintaining a short distance, on the one hand, not allowing his gorgeous feathers to expose their position, so that the female bird can forage with peace of mind; on the other hand, when the female bird encounters danger, she can also stand up, and it is indeed a witty and brave "flower protector".
Carnivores inhabiting the mountains pose a threat to the pheasant, and humans are also natural enemies of the pheasant. When in danger, the male bird not only does not run away, but while making a rapid warning sound, he runs to the open place with his head held high, his feathers fluffy, exposing himself to attract the attention of predators.
When the female hears the alert call, she will immediately flee and run deep into the forest, or to hide herself on a steep cliff. The male waits for the female to escape before he runs away in a different direction, shouting and running down the hill.
In order to cover the escape of the female bird, she would rather expose herself and lead the danger to herself, which is really warm and loving!
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >05 is on the verge of extinction: there are only 20,000 left, and it is too late to protect it
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Emperor pheasants are rare and precious, but data on population trends is lacking, and in the past they were hunted objects, coupled with habitat reduction, so the population may be in a state of decline.
Today, the pheasant is relatively well protected, and the population has increased. According to expert estimates, there are about 10,000-19,999 emperor pheasants. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has designated it a near-threatened species.
Protecting the natural environment and giving the pheasant a beautiful home is the best protection for it!
Xuelinggu Nature Lab/Production