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by Susan Sharma on Sat Oct 01, 2016 7:51 pm
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Susan Sharma
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Posts: 54
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Location: India
Mountain pheasants are seen in the Himalayan region.  In India they occur in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and J&K. Neighboring countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan also have some.   Pheasants are the Winged guardians of Mountainscapes. The film documents the beauty of pheasants of India (Pheasants are the species of birds to which  the peacock, belongs).

 While many pheasants have been reduced to birds for captive breeding (like the jungle fowl) or as game birds in the US and Europe, several parts of Asia still have the wild population. Seeing a tragopan in the wild can be compared only to seeing a tiger in the wild for the first time. The round black-bordered white spots or ocelli on the tragopan's feathers make it look like the King of Birds studded with diamonds all over. The beautiful monal pheasant, 'the bird of nine colours', is the state bird for both Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Monal feathers used to adorn the Kinnaur Caps of wealthy persons. Now their use is banned officially. 

The hills and valleys of the Himalayan ranges are the only areas left in the world where these exotic birds species still exist in their natural surroundings. Western Tragopan, Himalayan Monal, Cheer, Koklass and Khaleej - the mountainscapes exist because they exist.  Anyone living in the mountains will vouch for the Himalayan Monal whose calls warn the ground dwelling animals like musk deer, tahr and bear of approaching hunters /poachers. It is high time we removed the tag of game birds from pheasants.

See a short video on Mountain pheasants of India at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5kMkXdvKI
Susan Sharma
http://www.IndianWildlifeClub.com
 

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