Lophura nycthemera
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The silver pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) is a species of pheasant found in forests, mainly in mountains, of mainland Southeast Asia and eastern and southern China. It is introduced on Victoria Island in Nahuel Huapi Lake, Neuquén, Argentina and on Vancouver Island, Canada. The male is black and white, while the female is mainly brown. Both sexes have a bare red face and red legs (the latter separating it from the greyish-legged kalij pheasant).
The silver pheasant was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other pheasants in the genus Phasianus and coined the binomial name Phasianus nycthemerus. He specified the type locality as China. The specific epithet nycthemerus combines the Ancient Greek νυξ/nux, νυκτος/nuktos meaning "night" with ἡμερα/hēmera meaning "day". The silver pheasant was formerly sometimes placed in the genus Gennaeus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 3 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Silver Pheasant sighting in Cuc Phuong National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 101st most-seen of the 159 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and March–April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Silver Pheasant in Cuc Phuong National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, May–June and August–December, the lowest months. Those are among Cuc Phuong National Park's driest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against 390 mm in August. July has too few records to rate.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Silver 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.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Silver Pheasant sightings, Cuc Phuong National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 20%).
Same family: Phasianidae
The closest relatives of the Silver Pheasant that you can see in Cuc Phuong National Park (family Phasianidae, Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies) are green-legged partridge (about 40%) and Red Junglefowl (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Silver Pheasant is recorded against all the birds logged in Cuc Phuong National Park (16 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
