Arborophila ardens

The mountain partridge is a type of bird with relatively beautiful plumage colors. The eyes, forehead, eyebrow lines, cheeks, sides of the head, chin and throat are all black and connected together; the ear feathers are white; the front neck and the base of the neck are light orange-red. With black spots; white spots scattered above the black eyebrow lines, forming a white line extending back to the back of the neck. The upper body is olive brown with black horizontal spots, and the wings are chestnut brown. The upper chest has orange-red silky feathers, the lower chest is gray, slightly tinged with brownish white; the two flanks are gray with white feather shaft lines. The belly feathers are brownish white. The female bird is very similar to the male bird, except that the upper chest is filamentous: the feathers are slightly lighter orange-red; the belly feathers are slightly dyed light red. The mouth is black, and the legs and feet are ocher. The tail is short, less than half the len

A pheasant native to China, it is only found in Hainan Province. In the 1970s, it was common in the mountains and slopes of Hainan Island. Due to environmental degradation and hunting by humans, its number has dropped sharply and it is extremely rare.
It lives in mountains and hilly areas with low altitudes, especially in primitive mountain rain forests, valley rain forests and mountain evergreen forests, with an altitude of about 700-900 meters.

Hainan Partridge is called Hainan Partridge in foreign language, and has no subspecies.

Hainan Partridge often forages in pairs or small groups of 4-5, at the bottom of the ditch, at the foot of the slope, or where fallen leaves are piled up on the hillside. They roost in trees at night. It is alert in nature. When frightened, it will flee in all directions and make urgent calls. Then it will lie still or fly a short distance and fall down, hiding in the grass, bushes or bamboo clumps. It usually digs for food in the thick leaf litter under the forest, making a "rustling" sound while digging. After digging, it will leave relatively regular pits on the ground.

Hainan Mountain Quail mainly feeds on leaves, buds and seeds of shrubs and herbs, and also eats animal food such as insects and snails. Its natural enemies are weasels and birds of prey.

From December to January, Hainan Mountain Quail calls every morning and evening, lasting about 10 minutes in the morning and shorter at sunset, about 5 minutes. The calls begin to increase in February. And they are less regular. March to early June. Rarely sing. Occasionally, it sings for about 1 minute in the morning and evening. From early June to early July, the number of calls increases slightly, lasting about 2 minutes every morning and evening. The calls mainly include: zhe-gu, gu-a, jia-jia, gu-a. The male bird's call: nu-gu-li -dia-dia, about once every half a minute, the sound is very loud and spectacular, giving people a sense of shock, and can be heard from several kilometers away. It can be called the king of birds.

The activity areas of different pairs of Hainan Mountain Quails occasionally border each other, but there is no sign of overlap. The increase in calls during the breeding season may be to declare territory.

During the breeding season, the male Hainan Mountain Quail sings loudly in the area, one after another, but does not interfere with or invade each other. The breeding season is from April to June. The nest is built on the ground under the forest. Each nest lays 2 eggs. The eggs are pure white without spots. The size is 33.4-34.7×25.5-26.2 mm and the egg weight is 11.6-13 grams.

On December 30, 2001, bird experts from the Department of Biology of Hainan Normal University proposed that the "Hainan Mountain Quail" be the "provincial bird" of Hainan Province in a special report submitted to the Provincial Forestry Bureau.

The Hainan Mountain Quail has a narrow distribution area and is a very rare species. The total number in the wild is less than 10,000. The continuous reduction of the original forest area and indiscriminate hunting are serious threats to the survival of the Hainan Mountain Quail.

Hainan Bawangling Nature Reserve. From December 2006 to January 2007, experts encountered 33 Hainan Mountain Quail individuals in the primary forest using the distance sampling method, with a population density of 9.3 individuals/square kilometer; 16 individuals were encountered in the secondary forest, with a population density of 5.9 individuals/square kilometer. All surveys did not encounter Hainan Mountain Quail in the artificial forest, nor did they record its calling individuals.

Hainan Yinggeling Nature Reserve. From October 2005 to May 2006, the Hainan Mountain Quail population was surveyed in the Hainan Yinggeling Nature Reserve using the distance sampling method. The results showed that the number of individuals per group of Hainan Mountain Quail was 2.43±1.36 per group in the primary forest and 1.81±0.59 per group in the secondary forest; the population density in the primary forest, secondary forest and artificial forest was 15.7 per square kilometer, 15.8 per square kilometer and 0 respectively; calculated based on the number of groups, the density was 6.5 groups per square kilometer, 8.7 groups per square kilometer and 0 respectively.

In addition, Hainan Mountain Quail is distributed in Sanya River Bird Nature Reserve, Hainan Baomeiling Provincial Nature Reserve, Bangxi Eld's Deer Nature Reserve, Bawangling Nature Reserve, Wuzhishan Nature Reserve and Hainan Jianfengling National Nature Reserve.

Listed as endangered species in the "Red Data of Endangered Animals in China"

Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2017 ver3.1-Vulnerable (VU).

Listed in the first level of China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021).

Protect wildlife and eliminate game.

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