Trivia question for Jun-11-2011

Carter knows his Grandmother and his Aunt loves birds so he decided to write his trivia about this cool bird.  Males perform spectacular courtship displays, showing off his stunning plumage and long tail in order to attract a mate.

Despite the male’s showy appearance, these hardy birds are very difficult to see in their natural habitat, which is dense, dark young conifer forests with sparse undergrowth. Consequently, little is known of their behavior in the wild.  They feed on the ground on grain, leaves and invertebrates, but roost in trees at night. While they can fly, they prefer to run: but if startled they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive wing sound.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what type of bird this is and tell us how long the female typically goes without eating while she incubates the eggs?  Also, these birds were released in Britain for hunting but they proved to be unpopular.  Tell us why?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to William DuChatel for being the first with the correct answer. The colorful bird we featured is the Golden Pheasant. The Golden Pheasant or “Chinese Pheasant”, is a game-bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. It is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China but feral populations have been established in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Females sometimes go for over 3-weeks without eating while they sit an incubate their eggs in an effort to protect the eggs from predators.  These birds proved unpopular to hunters in England because it does not fly when alarmed like other pheasants.  Here is more on these royal looking birds: Golden Pheasant

Thanks for playing along 😉