Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok: Big Surprise

Yesterday saw me departing from my house to Doi Angkang with my father since 5 in the morning. It was an extremely dark and overcast day, which was not surprising as it's been raining everyday for more than a week. Around 7:30AM, we were driving uphill when my father shouted "Hume's Pheasants!" and stopped the car right in the middle of the slope. I quickly looked to the right side of the road and saw 3 female Mrs Hume's Pheasants running up the steep slope on the roadside and disappeared into the forest. My father said there's another male bird in the bush and I spotted something moving. We waited for about a minute then the stunning male came walking out frustratingly from the bush and walked across the road. It then flew up the slope on the opposite side and disappeared into the forest. We were both stunned by the magical moment and decided to wait for them to come back, but even after an hour of waiting, there's still no sign of them so we gave up.

Male Mrs Hume's Pheasant

That is quite an impressive pair of spurs.

One of the 3 extremely shy females

You may think that it must be easy to see a bird as large and strikingly coloured as that, but the truth is it's almost impossible to spot them while they're foraging on the densely covered forest floor. Not to mention the forest being extremely dark due to the overcast weather. Only when the bird came out to the road, a decent photo could be made. I was so happy to be able to photograph the stunning male once again after I first got it in 2007. It's definitely my most favourite pheasant and also one of my most favourite birds. Sadly, it is now listed as Near Threatened in the Red Data List. The area where I came across these 4 birds was a new area where I've never found them before. Hopefully, that means their population has somehow increased and expanding their range of distribution.