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Rookery
Koklass Pheasant, a rare bird in Roost
  • Koklass Pheasant, profile

    Profile

  • Koklass Pheasant, in flight

    In flight

Game Birds

Koklass Pheasant

Pucrasia macrolopha

  • rare
  • 38 km/h
  • Least Concern

Its name IS its call: sharp kok-kok-kok notes echoing from mountain forests before dawn. Built-in delivery notification.

Population
Global population unquantified but described as "widespread and reasonably common"; suspected decreasing trend (two subspecies, joretiana and darwini, may number fewer than ~10,000 individuals each; China population estimated ~100-10,000 breeding pairs)
Habitat
High-altitude temperate/coniferous mixed forest below the treeline, often on steep slopes with dense rhododendron, bamboo, or scrub understorey; an altitudinal migrant moving between roughly 370-4,000 m depending on season
Fun fact
The Koklass Pheasant is one of the few gamebirds that regularly flies uphill and is capable of sustained flights of many miles, and both its English and scientific common names are onomatopoeic imitations of its loud territorial call.
Range
Himalayan and adjacent mountain forests from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Kashmir, India, and central Nepal, across northeastern Tibet, and into northern/central/eastern China; nine recognized subspecies (three Himalayan, others in China/Mongolia region)
Diet
Largely vegetarian year-round (pine nuts, pine shoots, bamboo shoots, seeds, catkins, pollen, fruit), but becomes highly insectivorous during the breeding season, feeding almost exclusively on ants
Size
0.64 m
Lifespan
19.2 years

More Game Birds

The next 12 of the 49 in the collection, after this one.