Elliot's pheasant

Males are up to {{convert|80|cm|abbr = on}} long; they are brown and white with a black throat, chestnut-brown upper parts, white belly, nape and wing bars, red bare facial skin and long rusty-barred whitish tail. Females are smaller, at {{convert|50|cm|abbr=on}} long; they are rufous brown with a blackish throat, whitish belly and less barred tail.{{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=267&m=0 |publisher=BirdLife International |work=Species Factsheet |title=Elliot's Pheasant Syrmaticus ellioti |access-date=May 9, 2012}}

Elliot's pheasant is endemic to south-eastern China (Guizhou, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces), where it lives in evergreen and mountain forests at altitudes of {{convert|200|-|1900|m|abbr = on}}. Its diet consists mainly of seeds, leaves and berries.

Members of this breed are solitary animals, with the males especially being territorial. The courtship ritual involves males offering food and displaying. The average clutch size is between six and eight eggs. Eggs take a little under four weeks to hatch, while juvenile birds take approximately four months to mature.{{Sfn|Johnsgard|1999|p=263}}

Wild pheasants forage for seeds, berries, leaves, and other similar plant matter. They have also been known to eat ants. {{Sfn|Johnsgard|1999|p=262}}

Elliot's pheasant was first described in 1872 by Robert Swinhoe, under the name "Phasianus ellioti"; the type material was from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China.{{cite web |url=http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/elliots-pheasant-syrmaticus-ellioti |title=Elliot's Pheasant (Syrmaticus ellioti) |work=Pheasants and Partridges (Phasianidae) |publisher=The Internet Bird Collection |access-date=May 9, 2012}}{{cite journal |author=R. Swinhoe |author-link=Robert Swinhoe |year=1872 |title=Descriptions of two new Pheasants and a new Garrulax from Ningpo, China |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=550–554 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/90880#page/634/mode/1up |doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.1872.tb07924.x}} The specific epithet {{lang|la|ellioti}} commemorates the American ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot;{{cite book |author=Bo Beolens |author2=Michael Watkins |author3=Michael Grayson |name-list-style=amp|year=2009 |title=The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=9780801893049 |chapter=Elliot, D. |page=124 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-kSmWLc6vYC&pg=PA124}}{{cite book |author=James A. Jobling |year=2009 |title=Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names |publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781408125014 |page=145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XojbAr9nKgQC&pg=PA145}} Swinhoe explained his choice thus:

:"Possessed of so many striking characteristics, it would be easy to find an appropriate name for so marked a species; but on glancing down the list of Pheasants I find that not one bears the name of Elliot; and it strikes me it would be wrong to allow his magnificent work on the subject to close without the figure of a bird dedicated to himself" Alternative common names for the species include Chinese bar-backed pheasant{{cite web |url=http://www.arkive.org/elliots-pheasant/syrmaticus-ellioti/#text=All |title=Elliot's pheasant (Syrmaticus ellioti) |publisher=ARKive |access-date=May 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120429075453/http://www.arkive.org/elliots-pheasant/syrmaticus-ellioti/#text=All#text=All |archive-date=2012-04-29 |url-status=dead}} and Chinese barred-backed pheasant.

Although there is ongoing habitat loss, and the species has a limited range and is hunted for food, Elliot's pheasant is evaluated as near threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as it does not appear to be declining appreciably in numbers. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

• List of endangered and protected species of China

{{Commons category|Syrmaticus ellioti}}

{{Reflist|32em}}

• {{Cite book |last=Johnsgard |first=Paul A. |title=The pheasants of the world: biology and natural history |date=1999 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=978-1-56098-839-7 |edition=2nd |location=Washington, DC |pages=262-264 |language=en}}

• {{Wikispecies-inline|Syrmaticus ellioti|Syrmaticus ellioti}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080414001750/http://www.gbwf.org/pheasants/elliots.html Elliot's Pheasant], gbwf.ord

{{Phasianidae}}

{{Taxonbar |from=Q285477}}

Elliot's pheasant

Category:Birds of South China

Category:Endemic birds of China

Elliot's pheasant

Category:Taxa named by Robert Swinhoe