ML628238616

观察细节

On the evening of May 9, 2023, our team had just finished a day of bird surveys in Qianshan County and were having dinner at a guesthouse in Huangling Laowu. We then noticed some unusual bird feathers placed on top of a cabinet in the dining room. Taking them down for a closer look, we immediately recognized them as the tail feathers of a male Reeves's Pheasant. The guesthouse owners told us that "several years ago," a charming pheasant, never seen by the locals before, was stuck into a bird trap on the mountaintop behind the guesthouse. That severely injured bird was later eaten by locals (!!), leaving only its striking tail feathers that were carefully preserved as a keepsake. The owners also mentioned that one of their neighbors had previously raised some colorful wild pheasants in his backyard several years ago. Accompanied by the guesthouse owner’s 80-year-old father, we visited that old man only to learn that the pheasants had since returned to the mountains and were no longer present.