Sporting a deep orange ‘cape,’ with a vibrant yellow crown and back, dark wings and upper neck, red underparts, this bird is truly something special.

So it’s hard to believe these are shy birds, taking into account how loud it is on the outside. They are very hard to find as they run away when detecting the slightest of disturbances

Photo Courtesy of Linh Do / CC BY 2.0

The male is unmistakable, golden crest, bright red body with a deep orange cape. The cape can be spread out for display, appearing like an orange and black fan that covers all of its face except for its eyes.

The golden pheasant AKA the Chinese pheasant AKA the rainbow pheasant is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China.

Although some populations of them managed to establish themselves in the west, in places like Florida, USA, United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Photo Courtesy of Bhaskar Pyakurel / CC BY 2.0

The female of the species is much less of a show-off, sporting a dull mottled brown color similar to a common pheasant.

Photo Courtesy of David Castor (user:dcastor)/ Public Domain

You can find them in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand, as well as many more.

Photo Courtesy of PanWoyteczek / CC BY 4.0

In the forested areas where they reside, these birds like to feed on seed grains, leaves and invertebrates, before setting up camp in trees at night.

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Even though they can fly, they prefer to run as they are quite clumsy in flight. If startled thy can burst suddenly upwards at great speed with a very distinctive wing sound.

The adult male comes in around 40 inches (100 cm) in length, with his enormous tail accounting for two-thirds of it.

Their breeding season is in the northern hemisphere and is from March to April.

Usually, you will have the females laying 1-2 eggs per day until she has a clutch of 8-12. She then incubates them for around 22 days.

The Golden pheasant is considered at least threat due to its widespread global range.

Photo Courtesy of Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0