Lewis Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera lewisi)

The Lewis Silver Pheasant is one of 14 subspecies of Silver pheasant the most common of which is the True Silver (Lophura nycthemera nycthemera). The Lewis is smaller and darker than the True silver which has a mostly white upper body (the male only). The Lewis cock is more black with fine white markings on every feather. Please look at our Pheasant Gallery page 3 and 4 for photos. It has red legs and wattles and a lovely black bushy crest. The hen also has a crest but apart from this adornment she is a rather drab brown bird, which I always feel sorry for, for this reason.

In the wild they are from Cambodia and Thailand and live in grassy areas of scrub. They are super birds in the aviary. The cocks, like most of the pheasants, like to put on a good display during the breeding season. They are hardy birds which are very easy to look after. We have plenty of cover in the pens as the cocks can be aggressive to their mates although with our birds we have not found this to be the case. They have a liking for peanuts and grain as well as some fruit, especially berries, but our birds have surprisingly (the True Silvers love their mealworms and crickets) ignored any live food given to them.

Hens can lay up to around 20 eggs in a season which are incubated for 25 - 26 days. They start laying at the end of March or beginning of April and will continue until around the end of May. The biggest problem is the availability of unrelated stock in the UK as there are very few breeders. In fact I would really like to hear from other breeders so that we can increase our numbers in the future.

These are super birds which are fairly quiet and will allow the plants in their aviary to flourish (they don't dig them up or eat every leaf as it appears). Although at the moment, in this country, they are quite scarce they are bound to become much more popular and I see no reason why they can not be kept by a novice, as they have proven themselves, to us, to be excellent aviary birds needing no special care whatsoever.