Reeves’s Pheasant

Syrmaticus reevesii

The longest tail of any wild bird on Earth, up to 2.4 meters. Traditional Chinese opera borrowed them. So did your inbox.

Population: 2,500–9,999 mature individuals (BirdLife/IUCN 2018 assessment); total population (all age classes) roughly 3,500–15,000, with some Chinese national estimates running as high as ~23,000
Habitat: Temperate/subtropical broadleaf forest dominated by oaks (usually dense canopy, sparse undergrowth), also conifer forest and scrub, at elevations of roughly 400–2,600 m
Fun fact: The male Reeves's pheasant grows the longest tail feathers of any bird species — up to about 2.4 m (7.9 ft) — a Guinness World Record; males add roughly 30 cm of tail length per year, and the species' call is described as an unusually musical, almost passerine-like warble for a galliform.
Range: Endemic to central and eastern China: Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, and Hunan provinces historically; now extirpated from Shanxi and Hebei, with a severely fragmented remaining range. Introduced (feral/ornamental) populations established in the UK, France, Czech Republic, and USA.
Diet: Mostly vegetable matter — seeds and cereals/grains are directly confirmed by Wikipedia; broader claims of leaves, roots, fruit, and supplemental insects/invertebrates are plausible for the genus but were not independently corroborated in this pass beyond the original secondary source
Size: 2.1 m
Wingspan: 0.65 m
Lifespan: 7 years

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