Salvadori's Pheasant
Lophura inornata
Chunky pheasant endemic to Sumatra’s highlands and foothills. Male is dark iridescent blue, while the female is warm brown with a dark tail. Both sexes have short tails, bright red patches of bare facial skin, and pale bills with a faint hook. Forages quietly on the forest floor, typically singly, sometimes in pairs. Generally fairly quiet; deep “bwoop” contact calls sometimes given, and males give a wing-whirring display that can be audible at close range.
Identification
The male and female Salvadori's pheasant are quite unlike each other in appearance, and in fact the male bird is very similar to the female crestless fireback (Lophura erythrophthalma). The male Salvadori's pheasant is 46 to 55 cm (18 to 22 in) in length and is plain black, with a bluish fringe to the feathers of body and neck. The tail is short and rounded. The beak is whitish-green and the iris orange-red. There is a yellowish-green or grey-green ring of bare skin round the eye, and the rest of the bare facial skin is bright red. The legs are greyish-blue with a strong spur. The female is slightly shorter and has no spur. Her colour is reddish-brown, each feather having fine black speckling and a pale streak by the shaft, giving her a mottled look. The throat is paler brown and the tail is blackish-brown. Juveniles are similar to females but the feathers are edged with pale buff giving a scaled effect.<p>The principle differences between the male Salvadori's pheasant and the female crestless fireback is that the former is longer, has a pale bill and holds the tail lowered while the latter is more robust, has a black beak and tends to keep the tail cocked. Also, Salvadori's pheasant occurs at higher altitudes in Sumatra than the crestless fireback.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Lophura inornata
- Authority
- (Salvadori, 1879)
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Phasianidae
- Genus
- Lophura
Range and habitat
Salvadori's pheasant is endemic to Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is found at altitudes between about 650 and 2,200 m (2,130 and 7,220 ft). There are two subspecies; L. i. inornata being relatively common and known from many locations in the centre and south of the Barisan Mountains, while L. i. hoogerwerfi, Hoogerwerf's pheasant, is restricted to the northern part of the mountains and has been seen infrequently.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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