Hydrophasianus chirurgus

The pheasant is a large bird with a white head and neck and a very bright golden feather covering the back of the neck. The back, belly and tail feathers are brown, the wings are mainly white, the tips are dark brown, and the tail feathers are long like those of pheasants. As a bird living in shallow water, the "feet" of the water pheasant are very characteristic, and the toes are particularly long, like forked dead branches. This evolution is to better distribute the body weight, so that it can walk on water plants and lotus leaves, but also more convenient to catch aquatic plants, small fish, shrimp and aquatic insects and other food.
The head, chin, throat and front neck are white, the back neck is golden yellow, and the pillow is black, extending into a black line on both sides, connecting with the black of the chest along the side of the neck, separating the front neck white from the back neck gold. Back and shoulders brown with purple luster. Waist, tail covering and

It is distributed abroad in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Indochina Peninsula, Philippines, Indonesia, Oman. Occasionally found in Yemen, Afghanistan, Australia and other places.
It used to be a common seasonal migratory bird in China. The lack of a peaceful habitat is now rare. It breeds in all parts of China south of 32° N, including Taiwan, Hainan Island, and southeastern Tibet. Some birds overwinter in Taiwan and Hainan. It is distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Hainan Island and other Yangtze River basin and southeast coastal provinces, and sometimes extends northward to Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other provinces.
It is found in freshwater lakes, ponds and swamps rich in emergent and floating plants.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana is a small to medium sized bird with no subspecies.

Water pheasants prefer to live alone or in small groups, sometimes in large groups in winter. Sex lively, good walking, light step, can float on the water lily, lotus, water chestnut and other aquatic plants to run back and forth and rest. He is also good at swimming and diving, swimming with his head and tail raised above the water, and sometimes sneaking under the water or flying along the water. They often walk on the leaves of phytoplankton such as water lilies and lotus flowers in small ponds and lakes. Pick and choose to find food, and occasionally fly short distances to new feeding points. A cat-like "meow" sound.

The pheasant enters the breeding season at the end of April each year, and changes its black and white breeding feathers, which are very striking, until the end of August, when the breeding feathers are gradually removed and replaced with yellow brown winter feathers, announcing the end of the breeding season. In the process of molting, the pheasant lost its flight feathers all at once and lost the ability to fly. After the flight feathers grow, they can resume flying.

Water pheasants feed mainly on insects, shrimp, mollusks, crustaceans and other small invertebrates and aquatic plants.

Pheasants are resident or summer migrants. Yunnan and the southern coastal areas, Hong Kong and Taiwan are resident birds, and the northern areas are summer migrants. In spring, they move to the northern breeding ground from late March to early April, and in autumn, they leave the breeding ground from late September to early October.

The pheasant and the greenshank also have the phenomenon of sexual reversal or polyandrogyny. The female pheasant looks very similar to the male bird, but the female bird is large, while the male bird is smaller, about half the weight of the female bird. Interestingly, during the breeding season, females fight each other to occupy the mating territory, and the winner takes possession of the territory. The male will then enter the female's territory and seek a mate. In general, the male bird's way of courtship is "showing off", which is manifested as "dancing" and singing. The study found that water pheasants can make 15 calls, nine of which can only be heard during courtship. What is more interesting is that when the male birds in the territory reach a certain number, in order to let their "male pet" have a comfortable living environment, the female birds will also "expand the territory" and expand the area of the "territory". In the eyes of female birds, "harem" management is also important. In the territory of the female jacana, each selected male bird is given a plot of land to nest, hatch eggs and raise young. Yes, you read that right, all this "housework" is done by the male birds, while the "queen" is responsible for defending the territory and laying eggs. The male bird that is favored by the "queen" in the territory will build a nest on the leaf. The nest structure of the water pheasant is very simple among birds. The male bird holds some water grass in his beak and puts it on the leaf to ensure that the egg will not fall into the water. After mating, the female lays four eggs in the nest and begins a new relationship, while the male stays behind to incubate the eggs.

Pheasant breeding season is April to September. A female multi-male system, the female birds often fight for occasionally. They usually nest on lotus leaves, lily leaves, daffodils, and large floating grasses. The nest is small, thin and disc-shaped, consisting mainly of hay leaves and stems. Each brood lays 4 eggs, the eggs are pear shaped, the color varies greatly, there are green brown, brass, olive brown to deep purple chestnut, very glossy, the size is 33-40 mm ×26-29 mm, the average 36 mm ×27 mm. The incubation is carried out by the male, and in a breeding season the female may lay more than 10 broods, which are incubated by different males for 26 days.

After 22-26 days of incubation, the chicks emerge on their own. Chicks from the shell to two weeks old need to hide under the wings of their parents in the morning and at dusk when temperatures are low. Three to four weeks only in bad weather such as rain and wind close to the birds. Pheasant chicks are early adult birds, which can walk about half an hour after birth, and carry out foraging activities behind the parent bird (male bird), without the parent bird feeding. It takes six weeks for the chicks to grow into the shape of a subadult bird, and after seven weeks they can fly, except for a few that remain in the territory of the parent bird, most of them will fly away to find another habitat.

Parent birds (male birds) lead the chicks to forage and guard around the chicks, when the danger is approaching, it will issue a rapid warning sound (continuous high frequency sharp short whistle du), and sometimes even deliberately attract the attention of the intruder, the intruder away, and the chicks take the opportunity to hide in the gyale leaves. Eggs and nestlings living in water lilies, lotus, water chestnut and other habitats face the threat of turtles, snakes, mice, while eggs and nestlings in Gorgon euryale habitat are less threatened by natural enemies, possibly because the surface of the sharp thorn of Gorgon euryale leaves hinders the action of other animals.

The range of water pheasant in China is gradually shrinking. In the history of Taiwan Province, it was widely distributed, but now it is less than 100. Baidang Lake in Anhui province, Dongting Lake in Hunan Province and so on are only scattered. It is now very rare in China. Gorgon Euryale is abundant in this area, and there are large and small Gorgon pools all over the countryside, providing a broad habitat for jacanas. There are about 1,500 jacanas in Jiangxi Village of Yongan Town alone (statistics in September 2004). There are no pheasants left in Wing On Town and only a few in Sha Po Town.

In May 2022, a photographer photographed a pheasant in the Hutuo River wetland in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. In July 2022, staff found traces of water pheasant in Baiyangdian bird monitoring in Xiongan New Area.

It was included in the List of Land Wild Animals under State Protection that are beneficial or have important economic and scientific research value (Item 113) issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 2.

Protect wild animals and eliminate wild meat.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!