Bird Album
Blue Eared Pheasant
Crossoptilon auritum (Pallas, 1811)
≈77 cmLength1.8 kgWeight
It is a large blue-gray pheasant with a red face and a tuft of white feathers below the eye.
Busiest months: May · Most records: China
How to identify
Field marks
- Feathers blue-gray, with a black tuft on the head
- Face bare and red
- Iris yellow; a tuft of white feathers below the eye
- Legs scarlet; tail feathers curved, with black tips
Male, female and young
Sexes similar, but the male is slightly larger and has short spurs on the legs.
Where and when it's recorded
Blue Eared Pheasant has been recorded at 34 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 1 country or region.
Records by month Northern Hemisphere
Where it's recorded most
- Baxi ForestChina133 records
- Lianhuashan NNRChina54 records
- Gonggangling PassChina40 records
More places
- Lamaling Mountain PassChina30 records
- Jiuzhaigou NNRChina25 records
- Baxi Forest – lower trackChina18 records
- Huzhu Beishan National Forest ParkChina16 records
- Zhasage GorgeChina10 records
- BaxiChina7 records
- Shi'erpanpoChina7 records
Countries and regions with the most records
eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.
About
The blue eared pheasant (Crossoptilon auritum), also sometimes hyphenated as blue eared-pheasant, is a large pheasant endemic to China. Although it is considered rare, the blue eared pheasant is evaluated as of least concern.
Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia
Questions
How big is the Blue Eared Pheasant?
The Blue Eared Pheasant is about ≈77 cm long and weighs around 1.8 kg.
Where does the Blue Eared Pheasant live?
Its breeding range: Palearctic: central China. It is most often recorded in China.
When is the best time to see the Blue Eared Pheasant?
At the hotspots we track, it is recorded most in May (Northern Hemisphere).
Is the Blue Eared Pheasant endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the Blue Eared Pheasant as Least Concern.
What does the Blue Eared Pheasant eat?
Main food: Omnivore.
What family is the Blue Eared Pheasant in?
It belongs to the family Pheasants & Allies (Phasianidae), order Galliformes.
At a glance
- Length
- ≈77 cm
- Weight
- 1.8 kg
- Habitat
- Forest
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Lifestyle
- Active on the ground
- Migration
- Resident (barely migrates)
- Conservation
- Least Concern
More measurements
- Wing
- 296 mm
- Tail
- 472 mm
- Bill
- 43 mm
- Tarsus
- 86 mm
Averages from the AVONET dataset; length from field guides where available.
Range
Palearctic: central China
Breeding range, IOC World Bird List 15.2
Classification
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Pheasants & Allies Phasianidae
- Genus
- Crossoptilon
Other birds in the genus Crossoptilon
Tibetan Eared PheasantCrossoptilon harmani
White Eared PheasantCrossoptilon crossoptilon
Brown Eared PheasantCrossoptilon mantchuricum
Udzungwa Forest PartridgeXenoperdix udzungwensis
Ferruginous PartridgeCaloperdix oculeus
Crested PartridgeRollulus rouloul
Black PartridgeMelanoperdix niger
Hill PartridgeArborophila torqueola
Sichuan PartridgeArborophila rufipectus
Chestnut-breasted PartridgeArborophila mandellii
Download illustration
Free to use with credit: “Illustration: Bird Album (birdalbum.com)”. Drawn by AI from a reference photo by wangqg. ↗
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