In ancient books, the peacock is recorded as Kong Jue, also known as Kong Bird, Yue Bird, and Nanke. It is said to be the prototype of the sacred bird Phoenix. Peacock is a genus of chickadels ~ pheasant family ~ peacock genus, the only existing species of peacock genus are green peacock and blue peacock, peacock also has a separate genus of distant relatives: African peacock genus ~ Congo peacock.
In addition, there is the genus of the grey peacock, which belongs to the pheasant family with the peacock. There are 8 species in the genus Grey Peacock Pheasant. They will also open the screen, but after all, they are not peacocks, although they are called "peacock pheasants". In addition, there are several birds with bright feathers in the pheasant family, and this article will also show pictures of these birds.
First look at the real peacocks:
↑ Blue Peacock
The blue peacock is native to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. It inhabits hills, forests, and waters. The blue peacock preys on the juvenile of the cobra, so it is quite popular in the local area and will not be hunted. Therefore, the blue peacock is very close to people. It roosts in trees, but builds nests on the ground and feeds. In addition to preying on snakes, the blue peacock also eats rats, frogs, insects, seeds, and fruits.
The neck, chest and abdomen of the male blue peacock are brilliant blue, so it is called a blue peacock. Females have grey-green plumage.
Male tail feathers are about 152 cm with eye-like spots that open the screen to scare off predators. In addition to deterring predators, the main role of the open screen is "courtship". Attracting the attention of females, the tail feathers are a sign of male health.
↑ Green Peacock
The green peacock, also known as the Javanese peacock, is commonly known as the dragon bird. It is native to northeastern India, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Indonesian island of Java. The Chinese green peacock is found in a sparse number in Yunnan and Tibet, with a total of three subspecies.
The male has 1.5 m long tail feathers and a predominantly emerald green neck and thorax.
↑ White Peacock
The white peacock is not a wild species, but is generally formed by mutation of the blue peacock gene. The chance of mutation is one in a thousand. The feathers of this mutated peacock are monotonous in color and do not attract females at all. Therefore, only artificial breeding can maintain the white peacock population.
↑ Black Peacock
It is also a mutant species of the blue peacock, and the chance of mutation is lower than that of the white peacock. This blackened mutation often carries the gene for a deadly disease. And not attracting females, courtship is difficult. So the number is very rare.
↑ Congo Peacock
It is a pheasant that inhabits the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Africa and is a cousin of the peacock, who is closely related by blood. However, it is not a species of the genus Peacock, it belongs to the genus African Peacock.
Compared with the blue peacock and green peacock, the Congolese peacock is a bit nameless ~ male bird - the whole body feathers are black and the neck has dark blue feathers, and there are large red dots near the head. Female – green feathers on the back and brown feathers for the rest.
It lives in tropical forests and preys on rats, frogs, snakes, lizards, insects, and also eats plant seeds, fruits, leaves, and rhizomes. There are about 2,500 extant species, endangered species.
In the pheasant family, there are also several species of birds that can open their tail feathers. Let's take a look at these beautiful "flower fans".
↑ Palawan gray peacock pheasant
Grey peacock pheasant genus ~ Palawan grey peacock pheasant. It is the most peacock-like pheasant among the 8 species of the genus Grey Peacock Pheasant. The male has an upright crown , white streaks on the eyes , and a metallic green and black body. The tail feathers have large blue-green eye spots, which are not as long as peacocks, but can also be fanned out during courtship.
Endemic to the Philippines, it inhabits the rainforest of palawan in the Philippines.
↑ Phoenix-crowned peacock pheasant
Also known as the Malay pheasant, it is a medium-sized peacock pheasant. Their habitat has spread throughout Malaysia and Thailand, as well as in Myanmar, Singapore and Sumatra. It is now limited to central Malaysia.
↑ Borneo peacock pheasant
The Borneo peacock pheasant is the rarest species of the grey peacock pheasant. It is found only in the lowland forests of Borneo. Once thought to be a subspecies of the crested peacock pheasant, it is now recognized as an independent species.
↑ Eye-spotted peacock pheasant
The eye-spotted peacock pheasant lives in the forests of southern Vietnam and eastern Cambodia, and is found only in the Indochina Peninsula. The face is red and not covered with feathers.
↑ Grey peacock pheasant
It inhabits Sikkim, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan and Hainan in China, and is active in 1500 meters of mountain forest bamboo bushes. There are two subspecies.
↑ Hainan gray peacock pheasant
is an endangered bird belonging to the genus Peacock Pheasant in the pheasant family. It is an endemic species of Hainan Island. It was once thought to be a subspecies of the grey peacock pheasant , and was later identified as an independent species by molecular sequence analysis. Its numbers in the wild have become particularly rare. Eat insect and plant seeds.
↑ Copper-tailed peacock pheasant
Its natural habitat is the montane forest of the western Indonesian island of Sumatra. The smaller tail feathers are chestnut brown with metallic purple stripes at the ends. So called the copper-tailed peacock pheasant, it has two subspecies. Although the habitat is isolated, it is not an endangered species. As a species of the grey peacock pheasant, the male of the copper-tailed peacock pheasant can open the screen during courtship. However, no such picture was found, and it can be seen from this picture that its tail feathers are still relatively beautiful.
↑ Mountain peacock pheasant
It is widely distributed in the islands of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan Island and the South China Sea Islands in China. Although there are so many habitats, the population is not large and is an endangered species. It lives in a lush rainforest. It mainly eats insects, earthworms, stems, leaves, fruits, and seeds of plants.
↑ Crowned Luan
The crowned pheasant belongs to the pheasant family ~ Crowned BlueBird genus, alias crowned pheasant or crested pheasant, a large pheasant family. They are 2.3 meters long , with black and dark brown spots , a pink beak , brown pupils , and a blue face without feathers. The head is small with upright crown feathers. The male has 12 tail feathers up to 2 meters long and 20 cm wide at its widest. Males also open the screen when they court, although the tail feathers are not as gorgeous as peacocks. But it will give itself extra points with unique dances and chirps, thus attracting the attention of the female.
Native to Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia. Eat plant leaves, fruits, insects, maggots, etc.
↑ Brown-tailed rainbow pheasant
In the pheasant family , three species of the genus Rhizopteridae also courted by opening their tail feathers. One of the most colorful feathers is the brown-tailed rainbow pheasant. It is found in the southern foothills of the Himalayas: from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to northwestern Myanmar. In China, it is mainly distributed in southern Tibet, Sichuan and other places.
Belonging to the large pheasant family, the male bird has beautiful feathers and is the national bird of Nepal. It only eats the roots and stems of plants.
↑ White-tailed rainbow pheasant
It inhabits the alpine terrain of China, Myanmar and India. The Forest area of the Himalayas at an altitude of 2500 to 4200. The white-tailed rainbow pheasant feeds mainly on plant seeds and flowers. There are two subspecies.
↑ Green-tailed rainbow pheasant
Aliases shell hen, eagle chicken, charcoal chicken, sheep chicken. The green-tailed rainbow pheasant, like the birds of the two species above, also inhabits alpine areas. However, the altitude is slightly lower, and it is active in pine forests, meadows, and shrubs. Endemic animals in China are distributed in a few areas such as Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan. Plant-eating birds, because they like to eat the bulbs of shellfish, have the common name of "shell hen". It is an endangered species.
↑ Red-bellied pheasant
When it comes to beautiful feathers in pheasants, we should also mention the golden pheasant. Like the peacock, it is also one of the prototypes of the sacred bird phoenix. The males of the Chinese golden pheasant have colorful and colorful feathers, and live mainly in dense coniferous forests, which are very difficult to observe in the wild.
There are two species in the genus Golden Pheasant: the red-bellied golden pheasant and the white-bellied golden pheasant.
Red-bellied golden pheasant, also known as golden pheasant, pheasant, pheasant, pick chicken. It is endemic to China.
The male has a yellow head and a red tail of up to 1 meter; the female is brown with black spots; the tail feathers of the red-bellied golden pheasant are made of the headdress of Sun Wukong, Hua Dan and other characters in Chinese opera, but most of them are artificial materials now.
Activities are found in the mountains around dwarf trees and shrubs. Distributed in the southwestern region of Qinghai, Gansu and southern Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi, the core area of the distribution of the red-bellied golden pheasant is in Gansu and the Qinling Mountains in southern Shaanxi, and it is said that the name of Baoji City in Shaanxi Province comes from this species.
It mainly eats ferns, legumes, grass seeds, wheat leaves, soybeans and other crops.
↑ White-bellied pheasant
White-bellied golden pheasant is commonly known as bamboo shoot chicken, chicken, copper chicken, wide chicken, flower chicken (male), hemp chicken (female). It is mainly distributed in southeastern Tibet, southwestern central Sichuan, western Guizhou and most of Yunnan. It is also found in northeastern Myanmar.
The habitat of the white-bellied golden pheasant is higher than that of the red-bellied golden pheasant of the same genus, and like the latter, they all choose to be more rocky and less vegetationy, often haunting the bushes and short trees, and have a more obvious migration behavior with the change of seasons.
White-bellied golden pheasant belongs to plant-eating birds, it likes to eat plant seeds, but also eat a variety of grains, folk say that it loves to eat bamboo shoots, so commonly known as bamboo shoot chicken.