Lophura leucomelanos
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The kalij pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos), or simply kalij, is a pheasant found in forests and thickets, especially in the Himalayan foothills, from India, Nepal, Pakistan to western Thailand. Males are rather variable depending on the subspecies involved, but all have at least partially glossy bluish-black plumage, while females are overall brownish. Both sexes have a bare red face and greyish legs (the latter separating it from the red-legged silver pheasant).
The name is also spelled kaleege in old texts, such as Game Birds of India and Asia by Frank Finn, though no longer in his Indian Sporting Birds. The species was introduced to Hawaii in 1962 as a gamebird. On 21 October 2021, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir declared the kalij pheasant as bird of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The kalij pheasant is closely related to the silver pheasant, and the two are known to hybridize. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 3 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 7 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Kyiv Zoo | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 3 | Memphis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Alipore Zoological Gardens | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 6 | Bird Paradise | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 7 | Aquarama Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Rainforest Wild Asia | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 9 | Motithang Takin Preserve | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 10 | Paphos Zoo | 🇨🇾 Cyprus | |
| 11 | Міні-зоопарк | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 12 | Zoo Koki (Parque zoológico y botánico) | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Kalij Pheasant sighting in Dehradun on a given day, based on 132 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 142nd most-seen of the 280 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Kalij Pheasant in Dehradun on a given day, against under 5% in December to October, the lowest months. That is one of Dehradun's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 370 mm in July.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Kalij Pheasant sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Kalij Pheasant sightings, Dehradun has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Kathmandu (Nepal, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Kalij Pheasant is recorded against all the birds logged in Dehradun (132 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
