Tetraophasis

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Tetraophasis
Tetraophasis obscurus.jpg
Tetraophasis obscurus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Tribe: Lophophorini
Genus: Tetraophasis
Elliot, 1871
Type species
Perdix obscurus

Tetraophasis is a genus of Galliformes in the family Phasianidae, which includes chickens, pheasants, partridges, grouse, turkeys, quail, and peafowl. It contains the following species: [1]

The name Tetraophasis is a combination of the genus name Tetrao (the name Carl Linnaeus gave grouse in 1758), and the modern Latin word phasis, meaning "pheasant". [2] Monal-partridge are close relatives of monals and more distantly related to tragopan. They are boreal adapted species of high altitudes. Like monals they dig in alpine biomes for tubers, rhizomes and invertebrates as well as rodent pups and voles. Monal-partridges are important prey species for raptors, owls and yellow-throated martens. Like monals, monal-partridges are strictly monogamous. The female incubates the eggs until the last 48, hours when the male may take over the nighttime nest brooding. This is a habit documented in blood pheasants, tragopans and monals. Both sexes rear the chicks, which are not fully mature until their second year. Unlike monals the sexes do not separate during winter. Monal-partridges are strong fliers. They evidently compete with koklass as the two are rarely to be heard or seen in the same valleys.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galliformes</span> Order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phasianidae</span> Family of 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 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.

<i>Tragopan</i> Genus of birds

Tragopan is a bird genus in the pheasant family Phasianidae. Member of the genus are commonly called "horned pheasants" because males have two brightly colored, fleshy horns on their head that can be erected during courtship displays. The habit of tragopans to nest in trees is unique among phasianids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koklass pheasant</span> Species of bird

The koklass pheasant is a species of gamebird, being closely related to progenitive grouse that lived during the Miocene. They are distantly related to pheasants and are most closely related to grouse and turkeys. Koklass are the only species in the monotypic genus Pucrasia. Both the words koklass and pucrasia have been onomatopœically derived from the bird's territorial call.

<i>Alectoris</i> Genus of birds

Alectoris is a genus of partridges in the family Phasianidae, closely related to Old World quail, snowcocks (Tetraogallus), partridge-francolins (Pternistis), bush quail (Perdicula), and sand and see-see partridges (Ammoperdix). Members of the genus are known collectively as rock partridges. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek: αλέκτωρ, romanized: alektoris, meaning "chicken" or "farmyard fowl".

<i>Perdix</i> Genus of birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satyr tragopan</span> Species of bird

The satyr tragopan also known as the crimson horned pheasant, is a pheasant found in the Himalayan reaches of India, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. They reside in moist oak and rhododendron forests with dense undergrowth and bamboo clumps. They range from 2400 to 4200 meters in summer and 1800 meters in winter. The male is about 70 cm long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese monal</span> Species of bird

The Chinese monal or Chinese impeyan is a pheasant. This monal is restricted to mountains of central China. The plumage is highly iridescent. The male has a large drooping purple crest, a metallic green head, blue bare skin around the eyes, a reddish gold mantle, bluish green feathers and black underparts. The female is dark brown with white on its throat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eared pheasant</span> Genus of birds

Eared pheasants are pheasants from the genus Crossoptilon in the family Phasianidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-bellied partridge</span> Species of bird

The chestnut-bellied partridge also known as chestnut-bellied hill-partridge or Javan hill-partridge is a small, up to 28 cm long, partridge with a rufous crown and nape, red legs, grey breast, brown wings, red facial skin, and a black mask, throat and bill. It has a rufous belly with white on the middle. The sexes are similar. The young has a whitish face and a reddish brown bill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sclater's monal</span> Species of bird

Sclater's monal also known as the crestless monal is a Himalayan pheasant. The name commemorates the British zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufous-throated partridge</span> Species of bird

The rufous-throated partridge is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in montane forests in India and Southeast Asia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-throated monal-partridge</span> Species of bird

Chestnut-throated monal-partridge, also known as chestnut-throated partridge or Verreaux's monal-partridge, is a bird species in the family Phasianidae. It is found only in central China. Its natural habitat is boreal forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buff-throated monal-partridge</span> Species of bird

Buff-throated monal-partridge, also known as buff-throated partridge or Szechenyi's monal-partridge, is a member of the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. It is endemic to western China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood quail</span> Genus of birds

The wood quails are birds in the genus Odontophorus of the New World quail family, which are residents in forests in the Americas. The core range of the genus is centered in the lowlands and foothills of the northern Andes of Colombia and the mountain ranges of Central America; however, some species occur elsewhere in tropical and subtropical South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phasianinae</span> Subfamily of birds

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 clade, referring to erectile tissue in the non-feathered parts of the face. Both clades are believed to have diverged during the early Oligocene, about 30 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perdicinae</span> Subfamily of birds

Perdicinae is a polyphyletic former subfamily of birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, regrouping the partridges, Old World quails, and francolins. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the pheasants, tragopans, junglefowls, and peafowls (Phasianinae) till the early 1990s, molecular phylogenies have shown that these two subfamilies actually constitute only one lineage. For example, some partridges are more closely affiliated to pheasants, whereas Old World quails and partridges from the Alectoris genus are closer to junglefowls. Due to this, the subfamily Perdicinae is no longer recognized by the International Ornithological Congress, with the species being split among 3 subfamilies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests</span>

The Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests is a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion which is found in the middle and upper elevations of the eastern Middle Himalayas, in western Nepal, Bhutan, northern Indian states including Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim and adjacent Myanmar and China.

References

  1. "ITIS Report: Tetraophasis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  2. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Names. London, UK: Christopher Helm. p.  383. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.