Pheasants are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia. The classification "pheasant" is paraphyletic, as birds referred to as pheasants are included within both the subfamilies Phasianinae and Pavoninae, and in many cases are more closely related to smaller phasianids, grouse, and turkey than to other pheasants.
Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often reared by humans for their meat and eggs, or hunted as game birds.
The Phasianidae are a family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular gamebirds. The family is a large one and includes 185 species divided into 54 genera. It was formerly broken up into two subfamilies, the Phasianinae and the Perdicinae. However, this treatment is now known to be paraphyletic and polyphyletic, respectively, and more recent evidence supports breaking it up into two subfamilies: Rollulinae and Phasianinae, with the latter containing multiple tribes within two clades. The New World quail (Odontophoridae) and guineafowl (Numididae) were formerly sometimes included in this family, but are now typically placed in families of their own; conversely, grouse and turkeys, formerly often treated as distinct families, are now known to be deeply nested within Phasianidae, so they are now included in the present family.
Galloperdix is a genus of three species of bird in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. These terrestrial birds are restricted to the Indian Subcontinent, with the red spurfowl and painted spurfowl in forest and scrub in India, and the Sri Lanka spurfowl in forests of Sri Lanka. They share the common name "spurfowl" with the members of the genus Pternistis which are widely distributed in Africa.
The silver pheasant is a species of pheasant found in forests, mainly in mountains, of mainland Southeast Asia and eastern and southern China, with an introduced population on Victoria Island in Nahuel Huapi Lake, Neuquén, Argentina. The male is black and white, while the female is mainly brown. Both sexes have a bare red face and red legs. It is common in aviculture, and overall also remains common in the wild, but some of its subspecies are rare and threatened.
Perdix is a genus of Galliform gamebirds known collectively as the 'true partridges'. These birds are unrelated to the subtropical species that have been named after the partridge due to similar size and morphology.
The Palawan peacock-pheasant is a medium-sized bird in the family Phasianidae endemic to the island of Palawan in the Philippines. It is known as tandikan in the local Palawano, Tagbanwa, and Batak languages of Palawan. It is featured prominently in the culture of the indigenous people of Palawan. The bird is also depicted in the official seal of the city of Puerto Princesa.
The Bornean peacock-pheasant is a medium-sized pheasant. It is probably the rarest and certainly the least known of all peacock-pheasants. This elusive bird is endemic to lowland forests of Borneo.
The Malayan peacock-pheasant also known as crested peacock-pheasant or Malaysian peacock-pheasant, is a medium-sized pheasant of the galliform family Phasianidae. The closely related Bornean peacock-pheasant was formerly included here as a subspecies, but as understood today, P. malacense is monotypic.
The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant is also known as the Sumatran peacock-pheasant. It is an Indonesian bird.
The mountain peacock-pheasant, also known as Rothschild's peacock-pheasant or mirror pheasant, is a medium-sized, up to 65 cm long, blackish brown pheasant with small ocelli and long graduated tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The male has metallic blue ocelli on upperparts, green ocelli on tail of twenty feathers and two spurs on legs. Female has black ocelli on upperparts, unspurred legs and tail of eighteen feathers. The female is smaller and duller than male.
Germain's peacock-pheasant is a pheasant that is endemic to Indochina. The name commemorates the French colonial army's veterinary surgeon Louis Rodolphe Germain.
The grey peacock-pheasant, also known as Burmese peacock-pheasant, is a large Asian member of the order Galliformes.
The Ahanta francolin or Ahanta spurfowl is a species of bird in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. It is native to western Africa, where it occurs in Benin, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Heuglin's spurfowl is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda. The German explorer Theodor von Heuglin first described the species.
The crimson-headed partridge is a species of bird in the pheasant, partridge, and francolin family Phasianidae. Described by the British ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1879, it is the only species in the genus Haematortyx. It is endemic to Borneo, where it inhabits lower montane forest in the northern and central parts of the island. It is mainly found at elevations of 1,000–1,700 m (3,300–5,600 ft), but can be seen as low as 185 m (607 ft) and as high as 3,050 m (10,010 ft). Adult males have a striking appearance, with a dark blackish body and crimson red heads, necks, breasts, and undertail coverts. Females have a similar pattern, but with duller brownish-black colouration, orangish-red heads and breasts, and a brownish-black bill instead of a yellowish one. Juveniles are duller and have the crimson restricted to the top of the head.
The Phasianinae are a subfamily of the pheasant family (Phasianidae) of landfowl, the order Galliformes. The subfamily includes true pheasants, tragopans, grouse, turkey and similar birds. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the partridges, francolins, and Old World quails (Perdicinae) till the early 1990s, molecular phylogenies have shown that this placement is paraphyletic. For example, some partridges (genus Perdix) are more closely affiliated to pheasants, whereas Old World quails and partridges from the genus Alectoris are closer to junglefowls. There are two clades in the Phasianinae: the erectile clade and the non-erectile clades. Both clades are believed to have diverged during the early Oligocene, about 30 million years ago.
The Hainan peacock-pheasant is an endangered bird that belongs to the pheasant family Phasianidae. This extremely rare species is endemic to the island of Hainan, China.
Pternistis is a genus of galliform birds formerly classified in the spurfowl group of the partridge subfamily of the pheasant family. They are described as "partridge-francolins" in literature establishing their phylogenetic placement outside the monophyletic assemblage of true spurfowls. All species are endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa, excepted the double-spurred spurfowl. They are commonly known as spurfowls or francolins, but are closely related to jungle bush quail, Alectoris rock partridges, and Coturnix quail. The species are strictly monogamous, remaining mated indefinitely. They procure most of their food by digging. Spurfowls subsist almost entirely on roots, beans of leguminous shrubs and trees, tubers, and seeds, and feasting opportunistically on termites, ants, locusts, flowers, and fruit. Important predators are jackals, caracals, servals, and birds of prey, as well as herons and marabou storks.
