Palawan Peacock-Pheasant
by Eva Lechner
Title
Palawan Peacock-Pheasant
Artist
Eva Lechner
Medium
Mixed Media - Mixed Media/artistic Photography/painting
Description
SOLD as a print on 05/09/2021 to a buyer from Arab,AL,USA
The adult male is the most peacock-like member of the genus Polyplectron in appearance. It has an erectile crest and highly iridescent electric blue-violet, metallic green-turquoise dorsal plumage. It breast and ventral regions are dark black. The retrices are wide, flat, and rigid. Their terminal edges are squared. Each tail plume and upper-tail covert is marked with highly iridescent, light reflective, ocelli. The tail is erected and expanded laterally together with the bodies of the birds. The male also raise one wing and lower the other, laterally compressing the body during pair-bonding, courtship displays as well and may also be antipredator adaptation.
The female is slightly smaller than the male. Its contour plumage is cloudy silt in colouration. The mantle and breast are a dark sepia in coloration. The retrices are essentially similar to those of the male, exhibiting marked adumbrations and stunning ocelli. Throughout, their plumage is earthen and difficult to distinguish from the substrate and branches. While it has similar proportions of the tail to the male, its markings are not as visually arresting. Like the male, the female has a short crest and is whitish on the throat, cheeks and eyebrows.
Chicks are vivid ginger and cinnamon hued with prominent yellow markings. Juveniles of both sexes in the first year closely resemble their mothers. Subadult males in their second year more closely resemble their fathers but the mantle and wing coverts are marked with adumbrations analogous with the ocelli in the contour plumage of other peacock-pheasant species.
Like other peacock-pheasants, Palawan males and some females exhibit multiple spurs on the metatarsus. These are used in anti-predator defense, foraging in leaf litter and contests with other males. The male Palawan excavates slight depressions in which it orients its body during postural display behaviors. The bird vibrates loudly via stridulation of retrice quills. This communicative signal is both audible and as a form of seismic communication.
Palawan peacock-pheasants are strong fliers. Their flight is swift, direct and sustained.
Distribution and habitat
Endemic to the Philippines, the Palawan peacock-pheasant is found in the humid forests of Palawan Island in the southern part of the Philippine archipelago.
Copyright Eva Lechner
Uploaded
July 13th, 2018
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Comments (15)
Gary F Richards
Congratulations on your Top Finish in the contest… DARKNESS - DIGITAL OR AI ONLY! F/L
Christopher James
One of your peers nominated this image in the 1000 Views on One Image Group's Special Features Nominations For Promotion #24 . Please help your fellow artists by visiting and passing on the love to another artist in the the 1000 Views on One Image Group....L/F/Tw
Christopher James
Congratulation.....your wonderful work has been featured in the 1000 Views on 1 Image Group ..... Feel free to place your featured image in the Features Archive and any Genre specific Archive l/f/p