Tragopan temminckii

Its body shape and size are similar to those of domestic chickens. The male bird is 44-66 cm long and weighs 930-1800 grams. The male bird has very bright feathers, with a shiny black crest on the top of its head and a pair of cobalt blue fleshy horns on both sides of the crest, which are exquisite and beautiful. This is the origin of the name "horned pheasant". In addition, there is a piece of meat skirt with a peculiar pattern under its neck, which is colorful and full of changes. There are eight bright red spots with white edges on both sides, and many sky blue spots are scattered on the black background in the middle. Some people say that these spots are very similar to the cursive "longevity" character, so it is also called "longevity chicken", which is regarded as a symbol of longevity and good luck.
The cheeks are bare, revealing sky blue skin, surrounded by a circle of orange feathers. The back of the head, neck and upper chest are orange-red, a

Distribution in China: In China, it is distributed in southeastern Tibet, eastward to northern Yunnan, northeastern Guizhou, southern Gansu, southern Shaanxi, western Hunan, southwestern Hubei, northern Guangxi, western and northern Sichuan, etc.
Other distributions: Found in northeastern Assam, India, northern Myanmar and northwestern Vietnam.
The red-bellied tragopan lives in different vegetation types such as mountain forests, shrubs, and bamboo forests at an altitude of 1000-3500m. Among them, the evergreen broad-leaved forests and coniferous broad-leaved mixed forests at 1500-2500m are the most preferred. Sometimes it also goes up to the high mountain shrubs at an altitude of about 3500m, and even moves in bare rock areas.

The foreign name of the red-bellied tragopan is Temminck's tragopan, and there is no subspecies.

The red-bellied tragopan likes to act alone, but occasionally forms small groups in winter. It mainly feeds on the tender shoots, leaves, green leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds of trees, shrubs, bamboos, herbs and ferns, and a small amount of animal food. The food species are very wide, and more than 40 species have been recorded. In spring and summer, it likes to eat the tender leaves and shoots of scaly ferns, Baoxing cold ferns, primroses, etc.; in autumn, in addition to ferns, there are leaves, stems and fruits of Polygonatum, Sorbus, Rubus, etc., as well as animal food such as mountain snails and insects; in winter, it often digs open the snow and pecks at the leaves of herbs and ferns such as bluegrass, clematis, and deer ear leek.

The red-bellied tragopan is alert and good at running. When walking through the forest path, it often sticks its head out from the edge of the bushes to look around, and then quickly passes when it is sure there is no danger. When night falls, they quietly fly to the trees to spend the night, and the male and female birds roost in trees not far from each other. The sound of their calls is like the "wa, wa" sound of a child crying, so the local people call it "baby chicken". They often move alone or in pairs, and often gather in small groups of 2-5 or even 10 in winter. They are active during the day. Most of the time they move and forage on the ground under the forest, and sometimes they go up to the trees to forage, and roost on the trees at night.

Every March, the red-bellied tragopan enters the breeding season. During this period, every morning and evening, the male bird's "wa...wa..." occupying call can be heard in the silent forest, one after another, very loud, and very similar to the cry of a baby, so the local villagers also call it "baby chicken".

The fleshy horns of male birds are usually hidden and not exposed. Only the long feather crown can be seen on the top of the head, and the fleshy skirt is also shrunk under the neck. Whenever courtship shows off, the two horns swell up and stand tall, and the fleshy skirt is also swollen with blood, suddenly unfolding, floating in front of the chest, almost hanging down to the ground, as if wearing a beautiful colorful skirt, and sometimes retracting, and sometimes unfolding, more like a flower that keeps opening and closing, dazzling. At the same time, the wings are slightly opened, and the tail feathers are also spread out like a fan, and they move slowly and alternately in dance steps to win the favor of the female bird. When reaching the climax, the fleshy horns keep trembling, and at the same time, a low "coo, coo" sound is emitted, and then the body is straightened, flapping the wings, and rushing towards the female bird with its head held high. The female bird is in a half-squatting position, motionless to accept mating. After mating, the male bird leaves the female bird and shakes his wings, and the fleshy horns and fleshy skirt are also slowly retracted.

The nest of the red-bellied tragopan is built on a tree. Each nest lays 3-5 eggs. The female bird is responsible for incubating the eggs. Its feather color blends in with the surrounding environment and is difficult to spot even if you walk to the edge of the nest. The incubation period is 28-30 days. Generally, the female bird only leaves the nest once or twice a day to find food. If it encounters continuous rain, it has to stay in the nest. When the chicks are first born, they are densely covered with down feathers. The forehead is brown with black spots, the top of the head to the back of the neck is brown, the sides of the head and throat are light brown, the chest is brown, the abdomen is brown and white, the back and downy tail feathers are brown with black spots, the shoulders are dark brown, the wings are brown, with dark brown feather tips, and mixed with black stripes and white spots. The iris is light brown, the beak is brown, and the feet are gray-yellow. Within 3 days after the chicks hatch, the female bird keeps warming the chicks with her body and never leaves. Sometimes the chicks come out from under the female bird and flap their wings, or even climb onto her back to play, while the female bird closes her eyes and remains motionless. It was not until the morning of the third day that the female bird flew to the ground under the tree and called the chicks in the nest with a "coo". When the chicks heard the call, they flew to the ground one by one and followed the female bird to find food everywhere. The feathers on the wings of the horned pheasant chicks are relatively long, roughly equivalent to the feather length of other pheasant chicks after one month, which is also a wonderful adaptation to their living environment. After one month, the chicks have similar feathers to the female bird, but they can only live independently and have children until the spring of the third year. When the chicks are about to fly, the female bird flies directly from the nest tree to the ground 15-30 m away from the nest tree, making a slight "wa-wa" sound. The chicks walk to the edge of the nest and fly to the ground 10-20 m away from the nest tree in a few tens of seconds.

In June 2022, the scientific expedition team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences completed the second comprehensive field scientific expedition of biodiversity in the Xiaoheishan Provincial Nature Reserve in Longling, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. When collecting and sorting out the infrared camera image data, an animal with gray eye-like spots on its body feathers was found. Deng Xiaobao, a senior engineer of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, identified the species as the red-bellied tragopan.

The red-bellied tragopan is a bird with high ornamental and economic value. It was imported into Europe as early as the last century. It has been included in the list of national key protected wild animals and is a national second-level protected animal. According to the survey of the main habitats in Sichuan, the breeding population is 4/k㎡ and the winter population is 8/k㎡. Their habitats and populations are being disturbed and threatened by human beings such as deforestation, herbal medicine collection, poaching and picking up bird eggs, and management and protection should be strengthened. It has been listed in the N level of the World Endangered Bird List.

The IUCN Red List is listed as: Least Concern (LC).

It has been listed in the second level of China's National Key Protected Wildlife List (February 5, 2021).

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