Golden pheasant

Description

The golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus Linnaeus,1758) is a galliform bird of the family of the Fasianidae.It is not easy to list all the colors present in the livery of this pheasant and place them in the right position,given the great variety of shades and the bizarre arrangement of the same on the body.It is certainly easier to observe a photo of her in a wedding dress and to admire in detail this incredible palette that try to describe it.Gold is present on a hood-ridge that descends on the nape and on the lower part of the back up to the attachment of the tail.The red vermilion (canary yellow in the luteus variant) completely covers the throat,chest and hips and creates trousers that partially dress also the upper part of the legs.On the lower part of the nape there is a delicate orange cover,with thick transversal black stripes,the result of a lengthening of the neck feathers that form an elegant shawl.There is also a large blue scapular patch that contrasts with the golden yellow of the lower back.Blue nuances are also visible on the wing coverts.The tail is very elongated,white-yellowish strongly and finely spotted with black,with feathers mixed with others slightly shorter than a bright red.Eyes are vivid yellow while beak,wax and legs are yellowish.The female instead has a brownish-brown color with a notably long tail.In these the iris is,unlike the males,brown since young,a characteristic that greatly facilitates the sexing of immature specimens.The golden pheasant male is about one meter long,of which about 60-70 cm for the single tail,and weighs up to 900 g.The wingspan can exceed 70 cm.The young take on the adult livery from the second year,assuming,with advancing age,more vivid and lively colors.In captivity it is a bird bred for the sole purpose of ornamentation while having excellent and tasty meat.Various hybridizations were obtained with Lady Amherst's pheasant congener (Chrysolophus amherstiae ),with production of fertile specimens that then gave life to successive and increasingly intricate intersections.