Bronze-tailed Peacock-Pheasant

About the Bronze-tailed Peacock-Pheasant

The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron chalcurum) is also known as the Sumatran peacock-pheasant. It is an Indonesian bird. The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant is a small, up to 56 cm long, dark brown pheasant with dark grey legs, rather small head and long, narrow tail of sixteen feathers. The tail feathers are chestnut brown with metallic purplish bars near tips. Both sexes are similar. The male has longer tail, two spurs on legs and yellow iris while the unspurred female's is dark brown.

The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant belongs to the family Phasianidae and the genus Polyplectron, which consists of seven peacock-pheasant species. There are two subspecies: P. c. chalcurum, described by Lesson in 1831, which is known as the southern bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant.

P. c. scutulatum, described by Hoogerwerf in 1941, which is known as the northern bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant. mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop as well as the nuclear ovomucoid intron G data confirms that this species belongs to a clade together with the mountain peacock-pheasant, but also the mainland species Germain's peacock-pheasant and grey peacock-pheasant... Wikipedia →