The closely related Golden and Lady Amherst’s Pheasant have been allowed to interbreed in captivity. The below will help breeders determine the purity of their Lady Amherst stock and what to look for when purchasing future breeders.
Description: Cock
Size:
- 50 to 66 1/2 inches
Head & Neck
- Bare Facial Skin & Lappet: Bluish or bluish-green
- Beak: Bluish gray
- Crest: Crimson, narrow, stiff elongated feathers
- Crown: Short metallic green
- Face & Throat: Black with metallic green spots
- Iris: Yellow
- Ruff: White, rounded feathers with a blue or black border
Body
- Abdomen: White
- Breast: Metallic bluish green, rounded feathers with a black border edged with scintillant green which is wider and brighter than mantle
- Flanks: White, sometimes with a slight tinge of pale yellow over the white on the lower sides
- Lower Breast: White
- Mantle: Metallic bluish green, rounded feathers with a black border edged with scintillant (sparkling) green
- Upper & Middle Back: Black with a green bar and a wide buffy yellow fringe; square, broad feathers
- Rump: Black with a green bar and a vermilion fringe (like an irregular patch), square, broad feathers
- Vent: White, barred with black and brownish-gray
Wings
- Primaries (longest wing feathers): Blackish-brown sparsely barred with buff
- Scapulars (shoulder feathers): Metallic bluish green, with black border edged with scintillant green; rounded feathers
- Wing Coverts: Dark metallic blue with black borders
Tail
- Length: 33 7/8 to 45 inches
- Central rectrices (= the long flight feathers of the tail): White, with curved unbroken crescent shaped blackish-blue bars and wavy black lines on the interspaces
- Other rectrices: Similar on the narrow inner web, silvery-gray passing to brown outside with curved black bars on the outer web
- Upper Tail Coverts: Mottled black and white with long orange-vermilion tips
- Under Tail Coverts: Black and dark green more or less barred with white
Legs & Feet
- Tarsus & Feet: Bluish gray
- Thighs: Mottle white, black and brown
Common Faults of a Lady Amherst Cock
1. Traces of some color other than green in the crown. The red of the crest should stop precisely where the green begins.
2. Traces of red in the breast or on the flanks.
3. Facial color not bluish-green.
4. Dark gray or brownish color in the white area between the bars on the central rectrices (= the long flight feathers of the tail).
5. Broken or mottled barring on the central rectrices (= the long flight feathers of the tail).
6. Small size, approaching that of the Golden Pheasants.
7. Yellowish legs.
Description: Hen
Size:
- 26 to 26 3/4 inches (Larger than a Golden hen)
Head & Neck
- Beak: Bluish-gray
- Crown: Reddish chestnut with black barring
- Face: Buff, strongly tinged with reddish chestnut
- Iris: Brown, sometimes pale yellow or gray in older hens
- Sides of Head & Neck: Blackish brown, spotted with cinnamon buff strongly washed with reddish chestnut with dark blackish barring with a green sheen
- Lower Throat: Buff, strongly tinged with reddish chestnut
- Lores (the regions between the eyes and bill on the side of a bird’s head), Cheeks, & ear coverts (feathers covering the ears): Silvery gray spotted with black
- Orbital Skin: Light slaty-blue
- Upper Throat: Pale buff, sometimes white
Body
- Abdomen: Pale buff, sometimes white
- Back: Chestnut, strongly vermiculated with black
- Breast: Buff with darkish brown barring with a green sheen
- Flanks: Buff with dark blackish barring
- Mantle: Rufous (rust) buff, strongly washed with reddish-chestnut, with dark barring having a greenish sheen
Wings
- Wing Coverts, Tertiaries & Secondaries (shorter, upper “arm” feathers): Rufous buff, washed with reddish chestnut, black barring with a green sheen, bars courser that those on the mantle
Tail
- Length: 12 1/8 to 26 3/4 inches
- Color: Rufous brown, rounded feathers at the tip, strongly marked with broad irregular bars of black, buff and pale gray vermiculated with black
Legs & Feet
- Legs & Feet: Bluish-gray
- Thighs: Buff, mottled black and brown
Common Faults of a Lady Amherst Hen
1. Lack of reddish chestnut on the head, neck, throat and upper breast.
2. No gray marking on the tail.
3. Lack of distinct barring on the tail.
4. Yellowish legs.
Other Releated Web Links: Pheasant General Information … Pheasant Species … Pheasant Taxonomy … Breeding Pheasants … Pheasant Photo Gallery … Housing Pheasants … Pheasant Diseases
