Palawan Peacock-Pheasant

The Palawan peacock-pheasant is a medium-sized bird, up to 50 cm long, endemic to the island of Palawan in the Philippines, where it lives in humid forests of the lowlands and foothills, normally below 1,000 m. The male has a black body with blue marks on the wings, a finely speckled grayish back and tail carrying blue peacock "eyes", white marks on the face and a red eye-ring, while the female is mostly brown with a white face. It is highly invertivorous, taking isopods, earwigs, insect larvae, mollusks, centipedes and termites, along with small frogs, seeds and berries. Pairs are strictly monogamous, and the species is listed as Vulnerable.

About the Palawan peacock-pheasant

The Palawan peacock-pheasant is a medium-sized, forest-dwelling pheasant found only on Palawan Island in the Philippines. It belongs to the pheasant family, Phasianidae, and to the peacock-pheasant genus Polyplectron. Males have iridescent blue-green backs, a black body and tail feathers marked with shining "eyes" like a peacock's.

Of all the peacock-pheasants, the male Palawan is the most peacock-like. He has a raised crest and a back that shines electric blue-violet and metallic green-turquoise. The breast and belly are velvety black. White marks on the face and a red ring around the eye complete the look.

The tail is the showpiece. Its feathers are black with very fine golden-brown speckling, and each tail plume and upper-tail feather carries an iridescent, light-reflecting eyespot, or ocellus, bordered in black and gray. The flight feathers are broad, flat and stiff, black on the inner edge and shimmering violet-blue-green on the outer edge, with squared-off tips.

Not every male looks the same. Some have white stripes above the eyes, giving a masked look, and are sometimes treated as a separate subspecies called nehrkornae. Others lack those stripes and instead have dark faces, taller crests and bold white cheek spots. The masked birds seem to live in taller, more open forest on flat ground, while the white-cheeked birds favor darker, deeper forest in rolling terrain. Most authorities, however, treat the species as having no subspecies.

The female is slightly smaller and much plainer. Her plumage is a muddy, earthy brown, with a dark sepia mantle and breast, so she blends into the forest floor and branches. Her tail has eyespots too, though they are less striking than the male's. Like the male, she has a short crest and is whitish on the throat, cheeks and eyebrows. Chicks are bright ginger and cinnamon with yellow markings, and first-year young of both sexes look like their mothers.

Both males and some females carry several spurs on the lower leg. These spurs help in defense against predators, in scratching through leaf litter for food, and in fights between males.

Behavior and diet

Peacock-pheasants are mostly insect and invertebrate eaters. The Palawan peacock-pheasant takes isopods, earwigs, insect larvae, snails and other mollusks, centipedes and termites. It also eats small frogs, along with fruits, seeds and berries. Its leg spurs help it rake through leaf litter in search of food.

The male's courtship display is elaborate. He lifts and fans his tail sideways, raises one wing and lowers the other, and flattens his body sideways to show off the eyespots. He may scrape a shallow hollow in the ground to position himself during these displays. The same body posture may also help deter predators.

The male also makes sound with his tail, rubbing the tail quills together to produce a loud vibration. This signal travels both through the air and as vibrations through the ground, a form of seismic communication. The bird's regular call is a short, high screech lasting about half a second to a second, repeated about every 5 seconds.

Palawan peacock-pheasants are strictly monogamous and nest once a year. The female usually lays up to two eggs. Both parents raise the chicks, sometimes for as long as two years, and the male stands guard near the nest. Males become very aggressive during the breeding season.

Young males take time to reach full adult plumage. In their second year they look more like their fathers, though their mantle and wing feathers still show faint shadow markings in place of full eyespots.

Despite spending much of their time on the ground, these birds are strong fliers. Their flight is fast, direct and sustained.

Range and habitat

The Palawan peacock-pheasant is endemic to the Philippines and lives only on Palawan Island in the southern part of the archipelago. It inhabits humid forest in the lowlands and foothills, usually below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above sea level.

Within that forest, the two male forms may sort themselves by habitat. Birds with white cheek spots appear to favor deep, dim forest in rolling hills, while masked birds seem to prefer taller, more open forest on flatter ground with more light.

The species holds a special place on Palawan. It is known as tandikan in several local languages, including Palawano, Tagbanwa and Batak, and it is prominent in the culture of the island's Indigenous peoples. The bird appears on the official seal of the city of Puerto Princesa and on the Philippine one hundred-peso note. It also serves as a flagship species for conservation on the island.

Genetic studies suggest the Palawan peacock-pheasant split off early from the rest of its genus, possibly around 4 to 5 million years ago. For many years it was known as Polyplectron emphanum, but the name Polyplectron napoleonis was published a year earlier and takes priority.

Palawan peacock-pheasant vs peafowl

The name invites comparison with true peafowl, such as the Indian peafowl. Both have eyespots on their feathers, but they belong to different genera within the pheasant family.

Conservation status

The Palawan peacock-pheasant is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, assessed by BirdLife International in 2018. The population is estimated at 20,000 to 49,999 mature birds. It is also listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Forest loss is the main threat. Legal and illegal logging, mining, and clearing for farms and towns all eat into its lowland forest. The bird is also hunted for meat and captured for the pet trade. Its small range on a single island adds to the risk.

All of Palawan has been designated a Biosphere Reserve, but enforcing protections has been difficult and the threats continue. The species occurs in only one protected area, Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. Proposed actions include surveying the remaining lowland forest, protecting key sites, controlling hunting and trapping, studying how the bird responds to habitat change, extending the national park, formally protecting the forests of the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm, and captive breeding.