Brown Eared Pheasant

Crossoptilon mantchuricum Swinhoe, 1863

≈81 cmLength1.9 kgWeight

Dark brown overall, it has bare bright red cheeks and a pair of tufts of white ear-coverts raised like horns on the sides of the head.

Busiest months: March · Most records: China

Looks like Blue Eared Pheasant

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Tufts of stiff white ear-coverts project backward like horns
Bare skin on the sides of the face bright red, with small wart-like bumps
Body dark brown; rump and tail silvery white
Central tail feathers raised, with barbs hanging like a horse's tail

Male, female and young

Sexes similar in plumage; the male has a spur on the tarsus.

Voice

The usual call is “gu-ji” or “gu-gu”; the alarm is a repeated “ji-ji”, and the courtship call a rhythmic “gua-gua-gua”.

Similar species

Blue Eared Pheasant

Brown Eared Pheasant has a dark brown rather than blue body, with a white lower back and tail.

Where and when it's recorded

Brown Eared Pheasant has been recorded at 9 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 1 country or region.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

China

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 brown eared pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum) is a large pheasant, 83–110 cm in length. The body is dark brown overall, with the head and neck black and bare bright red facial skin. Long, stiff white ear tufts emerge from the sides of the head, forming a bundle.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia