Baby Cute Peacock Pheasant

The peacock-pheasants are a bird genus, Polyplectron, of the family Phasianidae, consisting of eight species. They are colored inconspicuously, relying on heavily on crypsis to avoid detection. When threatened, peacock-pheasants will alter their shapes utilising specialised plumage that when expanded reveals numerous iridescent orbs. The birds also vibrate their plume quills further accentuating their aposematism. Peacock-pheasants exhibit well developed metatarsal spurs. Older individuals may have multiple spurs on each leg. These kicking thorns are used in self-defense.The systematics of the genus are somewhat unclear. Molecular research has revealed that peacock-pheasants are not genetically related to pheasants and only distantly to peafowl. Their closest allies are the Asiatic spurfowl and the Crimson-headed Partridge, endemic to Borneo. These three genera share the curious tendency for multiple metatarsal spurs. Though they are somewhat divergent morphologically, their skeletons are nearly identical.The species of Polyplectron diverged at some time between, roughly, the Early Pliocene and the Middle Pleistocene, or 5-1 million years ago. Polyplectron malacense and P. schleiermacheri form a basal radiation around the southern South China Sea together with P. napoleonis, as is confirmed by comparison of biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b and loop as well as the nuclear ovomucoid intron


Source:
Picture | Link:
Wikipedia |Link: