Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus)

Golden pheasants are gorgeous birds endemic to the mountains of Central China.
The Golden and Lady Amherst Pheasant belong to a group called "ruffed pheasants" because of their "cape". In the golden pheasant this is black and yellow as shown in the above picture. The cock golden pheasant, once mature, with his wonderful array of colours, is one of the worlds brightest birds.
We keep these birds in aviaries from about 150 - 250 square feet. They eat leaves, shoots, flowers, insects and spiders in the wild. In captivity they will do well on a proprietary game feed. They also enjoy many other treats the favourite usually being peanuts.
Golden pheasants are often kept in trios (one cock bird and two hens) but we usually keep our birds in pairs. Although sometimes a trio or even four or five hens can be kept with one cock often a pair will do better. You may well end up with one hen being constantly picked on by the cock or other hens. You are also more likely to have a large proportion of infertile eggs with more hens. We do have a trio of Golden pheasants which have consistently gave us fertile eggs (about 50 - 60 a year) and have lived together harmoniously for a few years now. There is no right or wrong as each bird is different. The most important thing is to be prepared. It is always a good idea to have a spare aviary if possible as it is not unusual with a few birds to have to split them up and it could save a lot of heartache in the long run.
There is often some confusion between hens of the Golden and Lady Amherst Pheasants but as long as these are pure bred birds they are quite easy to tell apart. The problem is that there are so many hybrids sold as pure species that hens can look alike so it helps to know what to look for. Below I have pictures of both Golden and Lady Amherst's Pheasants for comparison. Click on the photos to see them enlarged.

A Golden Pheasant hen

Back view of a Golden hen Pheasant

A Lady Amherst Pheasant hen

A pair of Lady Amherst Pheasants

You can see in the above pictures that the Lady Amherst hen has much redder colouring than the more yellow shades of the Golden hens. The skin colour of the Golden is also yellow whereas the Lady Amherst is Greyish blue. The Golden also tends to have less barring than the Amherst particularly on her back. She also lacks the white abdomen that is often on the Amherst hen.
The Golden hen will lay a clutch of eggs varying from 5 up to about 12 eggs and incubation is 22 - 23 days. The breeding season starts at the end of March or the beginning of April and if the eggs are taken for rearing under a broody hen or for artificial incubation they will continue to lay up to about 36 eggs.
Golden pheasants are very hardy birds which are easy to keep and can become very tame. They are often the first ornamental pheasant for a beginner to keep. These are great little birds which do not need a huge space to thrive in and as they are so colourful and full of energy the aviary seems quite full even without any other birds. DO BEWARE as they are addictive. We started becoming interested in pheasants after seeing a pair of Golden pheasants on a day out and we are now well and truly hooked.