Crossoptilon auritum

The male blue pheasant has a white forehead; the top of the head and the nape are densely covered with black down feathers, with a narrow white band at the back; the sides of the head are exposed and crimson; the ear feathers are white, up to 50-60 mm long, hard, protruding above the head and neck; protruding obliquely to the back, like a snow-white scarf gently swept by the breeze, the long central tail feathers are tilted upward, and the soft and dense barbs are scattered like a horse's tail. The chin and throat are white; the body feathers are mostly blue-gray, and the feathers are mostly scattered like hair; there are 24 tail feathers, the central tail feathers are particularly elongated, high above the other tail feathers, the barbs are scattered and drooping, and the tips are stained with metallic green and dark purple-blue. The iris is golden yellow; the beak is light red; the legs and feet are coral red.
The blue pheasant is blue-gray all over, with the neck and shoulde

The blue pheasant is a Chinese specialty. It is a bird native to high mountain cold regions and is only found in China. It lives all year round in northeastern and eastern Qinghai, the Qilian Mountains in northwestern Gansu and the south, the Helan Mountains in Ningxia and northern Sichuan.
It inhabits mountain coniferous forests, mixed forests, alpine forests, shrubs and tundra grasslands between 2,000 and 4,000 meters above sea level.

Blue Eared-pheasant, no subspecies.

Blue pheasants like to live in groups of 10-30. They usually start to move at dawn and go to the middle of the woods to forage for food, mainly plant-based food. They eat and call one after another. When calling, they hold their heads high and stretch their necks, with graceful postures and rough and loud voices. At noon, they hide in the bushes and rarely come out to move. They become active again in the evening. At night, they gather in groups on trees with lush branches and leaves. They do not fly but jump from low branches to higher branches until they jump to branches close to the top.

Blue pheasants like to gather in groups, with the largest number exceeding 100. They are active during the day and roost in trees at night. They often jump from low branches to higher branches step by step. Group members roost close to each other among the dense branches of the canopy. They are alert and timid. If slightly disturbed, they will quickly run down the hillside. They rarely take off. They will flap their wings and fly in an emergency, but they cannot last long. Their call is like "Gela-Gela-Gela", which is loud and rough. They mainly feed on buds, stems, leaves, roots, flower buds, fruits and seeds of plants. They mainly forage in the morning and afternoon, especially in the early morning and evening. They rest at noon. They often forage in loose groups on the lawns in the forest or peck at the ground while walking.

Pheasants often move in groups, and the groups of blue pheasants are particularly spectacular and large, often with dozens of families moving in groups in pine trees and rhododendron bushes. The large flocks of pheasants are different from the large flocks of many small birds: they do not gather and disperse from time to time, nor are they a chaotic mob without a leader and scattered at the first sign of trouble. Their flocks have a leader and are quite regular in their movements. They have fixed places to stay at night and for foraging and bathing in the sand.

The main food species of blue pheasants are spruce, mountain willow, moss, violet, bluegrass, Fritillaria, etc. They even go to cultivated land to peck at crops such as corn, wheat, buckwheat and beans. Occasionally, they also eat animal food such as larvae of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera insects, locusts, walking shrimps, weevils, etc.

After February every year, large flocks of blue pheasants gradually split into small groups and migrate from the broad-leaved forests and forest edge shrubs on the sunny slopes to the coniferous forests and mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests on the shady slopes. In March, the small group of pheasants separates into pairs of male and female pheasants again. The breeding male and female pheasants always move alone in pairs, sing love songs to each other, mate, build nests... After the female pheasants lay eggs, they start to sit on the nest and incubate the eggs, and the male pheasants no longer stay with the female pheasants all day long.

The breeding season of blue pheasants is from April to July. At the end of March, the group begins to disperse into pairs. During the pairing period, male birds often fight for mates and peck each other's heads. After pairing, male and female birds move and forage together, usually the male bird is in front and the female bird is behind, accompanying each other and roosting on the same tree at night. Nesting begins at the end of April. Usually nesting is in the mountain willow woods and subalpine coniferous forests with forest meadows on sunny slopes, and also nesting in rhododendron bushes and alpine meadows. The nests are mostly placed under shrubs, mosses, tree piles or fallen trees, and some are placed in caves at the roots of trees. The nest is in the shape of a dish or a shallow bowl, which is very simple. It mainly uses a pit on the ground, and then pads it with twigs, grass stems, grass leaves, bark, leaves, mosses and feathers. Eggs are laid from late May to early June, with 5-12 eggs per nest. The color of the eggs is gray-brown or light green with slight brown spots. The incubation period is 26-28 days.

Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2016 ver 3.1-Least Concern (LC).

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

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