Blood Pheasant

The blood pheasant, or blood partridge, is a relatively small, short-tailed pheasant about 43 cm long and the only species in its genus. The bill is short, convex, strong and black, feathered between bill and eye, and there is a small crest of variously coloured feathers. The tail has 12 feathers with white shafts and whitish ends, and the coverts are a rich crimson. Both sexes have red feet and a ring of bare skin round the eye that is typically crimson, orange in a few subspecies (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is widespread in the lower Himalaya across north and east India, Nepal, Bhutan, south China and northern Myanmar, and is the state bird of Sikkim. The breeding season begins at the end of April, when males court females by flying at each other breast to breast, biting wattles, or making high leaps with kicks at the other's bill. Females nest from early May on the ground, under straw heaps or in brush, small caves or low tree holes, and lay 4–14 yellowish-white eggs with brown speckles at two- or three-day intervals. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority and gives a Very Restricted range of about 6,500 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).