Mountain Peacock-Pheasant
The Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Polyplectron inopinatum also known as Rothschild's Peacock-Pheasant or Mirror Pheasant is a medium-sized, up to 65 cm long, blackish brown pheasant with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The male has metallic blue ocelli on upperparts, green ocelli on tail of twenty feathers and two spurs on legs. Female has black ocelli on upperparts, unspurred legs and tail of eighteen feathers. The female is smaller and duller than male.
A shy and elusive bird, the Mountain Peacock-Pheasant is distributed and endemic to mountain forests of central Malay Peninsula. The diet consists mainly of berries, beetles and ants.
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 Bronze-tailed Peacock-Pheasant, but also the mainland species Germain's Peacock-Pheasant and Grey Peacock-Pheasant (Kimball et al. 2001).
A shy and elusive bird, the Mountain Peacock-Pheasant is distributed and endemic to mountain forests of central Malay Peninsula. The diet consists mainly of berries, beetles and ants.
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 Bronze-tailed Peacock-Pheasant, but also the mainland species Germain's Peacock-Pheasant and Grey Peacock-Pheasant (Kimball et al. 2001).
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| Mountain Peacock-Pheasant |
image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Polyplectron_inopinatum
