Golden Pheasant is a Chinese language restaurant in Torrance, California that “provides a plethora of eating choices … Not solely is the meals top-notch, however the service is outstanding, as famous by quite a few glad prospects. Critiques reward the beneficiant portion sizes and inexpensive costs … Golden Pheasant is a must-visit for anybody craving genuine Chinese language delicacies in a welcoming environment.”
Alternatively, it’s possible you’ll wish to try the Golden Pheasant Inn, which (in Erwinna, Pennsylvania) provides “A Style of France in Bucks County”, however the truth that the Golden Pheasant has nothing to do with France, nor with Pennsylvania. However to cite Nirvana, “Nevermind”. Different locations named after the Golden Pheasant embody golf programs and steak homes.
Anyway, 10,000 Birds is just not a restaurant assessment website however a birds/birding weblog. So, the subject of this publish is Chrysolophus pictus, the Golden Pheasant (chook species, not Californian or Pennsylvanian restaurant). Please adapt your expectations accordingly. Images on this publish present birds, not Chinese language or French-inspired dishes.
Those that discovered some Latin in school (I did – I do know it’s fairly ineffective, nevertheless it served me effectively) could know that pictus doesn’t imply “golden” (that might be aureus) however somewhat “painted”. I hope the pictures present that this scientific identify is kind of affordable.
Why are the males so colourful? One paper means that “completely different parts of plumage colour correlated with the size of the physique, tail, spur, and beak, suggesting that the a number of colours in male golden pheasants sign completely different parts of physique high quality”. So mainly, if a male Golden Pheasant has the fitting colours, it additionally has good genes – useful info for the discerning feminine.
In keeping with the HBW, the species “hardly flies”, as a substitute preferring to run away from hazard. Looks as if a bizarre option to me, however possibly the inspiration for the Gary Larson cartoon?
For some purpose, the Golden Pheasant appears to be notably fascinating to veterinary scientists. This leads to papers with titles equivalent to “Electrocardiogram evaluation of the Golden (Chrysolophus pictus) and Silver (Lophura nycthemera) Pheasants” or “Muscle structure of the forelimb of the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) and its implications for useful capability in flight” or “Forelimb Myology of the Golden Pheasant“. And no, I’m not going to summarize these papers for you – I’m already weirded out by the titles.
Fortuitously, the species is listed as Least Concern, although in some locations the place the species was launched, such because the UK, it’s now struggling (supply).
In Sweden, the primary Golden Pheasant confirmed up within the mid-1740s – a male Golden Pheasant additionally stored by Princess Louisa Ulrika at her property exterior Stockholm. When it died, it was given to Carl Linnaeus, who gave it a scientific identify (supply). I do know that that is largely irrelevant info, however what would we do with out irrelevant info with our longish lives? With out TV sequence equivalent to The Sopranos or The Wire, even?
Very similar to me, feminine pheasants usually are not too keen on people. A examine performed on the College of Haripur’s pheasantry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (an unlikely place for a pheasantry, if you happen to ask me, however you in all probability won’t), discovered that feminine pheasants, together with Golden Pheasants, are disturbed by guests and alter their feeding and hiding habits accordingly.
Does your spouse ever inform you to eat extra greens? Mine definitely does, although it’s a robust battle as I don’t like greens very a lot. Maybe I ought to be taught from analysis finished on feminine Golden Pheasants. They had been discovered to have improved egg manufacturing upon the incorporation of 5% inexperienced greens within the weight loss program. Then once more, I could inform my spouse I’ve no need to supply eggs.
Images taken at Wenchuan, Sichuan on June 01, 2025
