Monday, July 14, 2008

Pheasant galore along the road to Zhangjiajie, China



Roger Moo a.k.a. cactus400D was in China around April 2008 when he visited Zhangjiajie in the province of Hunan, a popular tourist destination. Along the way, he stopped at a place called ‘Kingdom Village (Town of Fu Rong) - Wang Village’ and documented his most interesting encounter (above).



What he saw was some of the most beautiful local birds, pheasants mainly. But they were not in their natural habitat. Rather, they were prominently displayed in the front of the many shops along the main road (left). These shops were selling exotic meat for tourists, mainly local wildlife.

The most prominent birds displayed appeared to be the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), also called Chinese Pheasant (below). These were hung with their full colourful plumage and long tail feathers dangling. The spectacularly beautiful male pheasant has a golden crest and rump, bright red body and exceedingly long and pointed tail feathers.


Also seen was the Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (C. amherstiae).These birds come from the forests of the mountainous areas of western China.


This post is a cooperative effort between NaturePixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.

All images by Roger Moo except Golden Pheasant by YC.
Source : BESG

4 comments:

  1. The pheasants are beautiful - shame to see them so badly treated. Are they prolific in the area?

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  2. Sad to see such pretty birds like that :(

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  3. Bird watching is my hobby since my college days. I am happy to see a blog on it, that too on Indian birds!

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  4. Hey, thats good stuff you have on your blog.. I envy your birding in Dehradun :-)

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    http://hawk-lady.blogspot.com/

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