Golden Pheasant: A Bird Painted in Gold

Golden Pheasant is the name of a Chinese restaurant in Torrance, California, known for offering a wide variety of dishes, generous portions, reasonable prices, and friendly service. Customer reviews frequently praise both the quality of the food and the overall dining experience.

There is also a Golden Pheasant Inn in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, which advertises “A Taste of France in Bucks County.” The connection between a Golden Pheasant, France, and Pennsylvania is admittedly rather difficult to explain. But, as Nirvana might put it, never mind. The name has also been used by other businesses, including golf courses and steakhouses.

The Golden Pheasant Bird

Of course, 10,000 Birds is a birding website rather than a restaurant-review publication. The subject here is Chrysolophus pictus, the Golden Pheasant itself, not a Chinese restaurant in California or an inn in Pennsylvania. So the appropriate expectations are bird-related. The photographs accompanying the original article feature pheasants rather than Chinese or French-style food.

Anyone who studied a little Latin may recognize that pictus does not actually mean “golden.” That would be aureus. Instead, pictus means “painted,” which seems like a fitting description once you take a good look at this remarkably colorful bird.

Why Are Male Golden Pheasants So Colorful?

The extraordinary colors of male Golden Pheasants may serve an important biological purpose. One scientific study suggested that different aspects of the males’ plumage coloration were associated with body length, tail length, spur size, and beak length. In other words, the many colors displayed by males may communicate different aspects of their physical condition.

Essentially, a male displaying the right combination of colors may also be advertising desirable genetic qualities. For a female Golden Pheasant choosing a mate, that could provide useful information about the potential partner.

Golden Pheasants Prefer Running to Flying

According to the Handbook of the Birds of the World, Golden Pheasants rarely take to the air and generally choose to escape danger by running instead. From a human perspective, this seems like a somewhat unusual strategy for a bird, although it certainly provides plenty of material for jokes about birds that apparently forgot they could fly.

Golden Pheasants and Veterinary Research

For reasons that are not entirely clear, Golden Pheasants have attracted considerable attention from veterinary researchers. This interest has produced scientific papers with impressively specialized titles.

Researchers have examined subjects such as electrocardiogram patterns in Golden and Silver Pheasants, the structure of the Golden Pheasant’s forelimb muscles and what that structure means for flight, as well as the detailed myology of the species’ forelimbs.

I am not going to pretend to summarize all of those studies here. Even reading the titles is already more veterinary anatomy than most people probably need in one sitting.

Conservation Status

Fortunately, Golden Pheasants are currently classified as Least Concern. However, the situation is not equally positive everywhere. In some regions where the species has been introduced, including the United Kingdom, populations are experiencing difficulties and may be declining.

The First Golden Pheasant in Sweden

The first recorded Golden Pheasant in Sweden appeared during the middle of the 1740s. It was a male bird kept by Princess Louisa Ulrika at her estate outside Stockholm.

After the bird died, it was given to Carl Linnaeus, who subsequently assigned the species its scientific name. This piece of history may not be especially important to understanding Golden Pheasants, but there is something enjoyable about collecting completely unnecessary facts. After all, what would long lives be without seemingly irrelevant information, especially in a world filled with television series such as The Sopranos and The Wire?

Female Golden Pheasants and Human Disturbance

Female pheasants do not appear to be particularly enthusiastic about human visitors. Research carried out at the University of Haripur’s pheasantry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, found that female pheasants, including Golden Pheasants, responded to visitors by changing their feeding and hiding behaviors.

The presence of people therefore appears to influence how these birds use their surroundings, demonstrating that human activity can affect even captive pheasants in measurable ways.

Green Vegetables and Egg Production

There is also an interesting dietary finding involving female Golden Pheasants. Research has shown that adding green vegetables to their diet can improve egg production.

In the study, including approximately 5% green vegetables in the females’ food resulted in increased egg production. So perhaps there is something to be learned from Golden Pheasants after all.

Of course, that does not necessarily mean everyone needs to start eating more vegetables. And for those of us who have no intention of producing eggs, there is always the argument that the research may not apply quite as directly.