Lady Amherst's Pheasant

Chrysolophus amherstiae (Leadbeater, 1829)

≈56 cmLength78 cmWingspan732 gWeight

The male has a white cape, green throat, orange-red crest and very long white tail feathers with black barring.

Busiest months: May · Most records: China, Canada, Singapore

Looks like Golden Pheasant

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Crown metallic green, followed by an orange-red crest
White feathers with black feather edges from the neck to the upper back form a cape
Bare skin around the eye blue
Rump orange-yellow; entire belly snow-white

Male, female and young

The female closely resembles the female Golden Pheasant, but is slightly larger with a darker head and cleaner underparts.

Voice

The male gives metallic calls in the breeding season.

Similar species

Golden Pheasant

The male Golden Pheasant has a red belly, while Lady Amherst's Pheasant has a white belly; females are very similar, but Lady Amherst's Pheasant has a darker head and cleaner underparts.

Where and when it's recorded

Lady Amherst's Pheasant has been recorded at 64 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 5 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Labahe NNRChina154 records
Longcanggou [General Area]China114 records
Erlang ShanChina84 records

More places

Tanshi VillageChina74 records
Yibin Laojunshan NNRChina37 records
Wuwei TempleChina30 records
Laojunshan – BomiluoChina23 records
Mount EmeiChina22 records
Wawu Mountain – Upper LevelChina21 records
Wawu Mountain [General Area]China18 records

Countries and regions with the most records

China Canada Singapore United Kingdom Switzerland

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

Lady Amherst's pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) is a bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek: χρυσόλόφος chrusolophos, "with golden crest". The English name and amherstiae commemorates Sarah Amherst, who was responsible for sending the first specimen of the bird to London in 1828.

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

Questions

How big is the Lady Amherst's Pheasant?

The Lady Amherst's Pheasant is about ≈56 cm long, with a wingspan of 78 cm and weighs around 732 g.

Where does the Lady Amherst's Pheasant live?

Its breeding range: Oriental: northeastern Myanmar, southeastern Tibet and southwestern China. It is most often recorded in China, Canada and Singapore.