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The 'Reeves's Pheasant', ''Syrmaticus reevesii'' is a large, up to 210cm long, pheasant with a scaled golden body plumage, grey legs, brown iris and red skin around eye. The head is white with a black narrow band extends from its eyes. The male has an extremely long silvery white tail barred with chestnut brown. The female is a brown bird with blackish crown, buff face and grey brown barred tail feathers.
The Reeves's Pheasant is found and endemic to evergreen forests of central and east China. Its diet consists mainly of seeds and vegetables. This spectacular pheasant is also mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records for having the longest natural tail feather of any bird species.
The name commemorates the British naturalist John Reeves, who first introduced live specimens to Europe.
They have been introduced for sport and ornamental purposes to Hawaii, USA, Czech Republic, France and the UK. In the latter three countries they have built up small breeding populations, and are still released on a small scale for shooting, often alongside Common Pheasants.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, and overhunting for food and its tail plumes, the Reeves's Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

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References

★ Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable

External links

★ BirdLife Species Factsheet

★ IUCN Red List

★ Red Data Book