Lophura bulweri
The Bulwer's Pheasant, *Lophura bulweri*, is an extraordinarily striking gamebird, renowned for the male's spectacular display plumage. Males are predominantly glossy black with a deep chestnut breast and a distinctive white stripe across the back, crowned by a shock of white head feathers. Their most remarkable features are the vivid, inflatable sky-blue facial wattles and the enormous, lyre-shaped white tail feathers, which can measure 40-47 cm (16-18 inches) and make up a significant porti...
Found primarily in dense, humid lowland and hill tropical rainforests, typically at elevations between 300 and 1500 meters, occasionally higher.
Primarily omnivorous, feeding on a diverse range of invertebrates such as worms, insects, and larvae, supplemented with plant material including fruits, seeds, shoots, and leaves.
Bulwer's Pheasants are extremely shy and secretive birds, spending most of their diurnal activity foraging silently on the forest floor, relying on dense undergrowth for cover. At night, they roost in trees, providing safety from ground predators. Their foraging strategy involves vigorous scratch...
The Bulwer's Pheasant is strictly endemic to the island of Borneo, inhabiting fragmented populations across Sarawak and Sabah (Malaysian Borneo), Brunei, and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Its distribution is largely restricted to primary and mature secondary lowland and hill rainforests, typica...
Vulnerable
- The male's white tail can be nearly as long as its entire body, making it one of the most disproportionately long tails among pheasants. - Its alternative common name, 'Bulwer's Fireback Pheasant,' is somewhat misleading as it lacks the 'fireback' plumage typical of other *Lophura* species. - T...