Lophura leucomelanos
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Kalij Pheasant sighting in Jim Corbett National Park on a given day, based on 888 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 368 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and May
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Kalij Pheasant in Jim Corbett National Park on a given day, against about 10% in July, the lowest month. Those are among Jim Corbett National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 360 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 8 parks where we can rate Kalij Pheasant sightings, Jim Corbett National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Royal Manas National Park (Bhutan, about 30%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 20%).
Same family: Phasianidae
The closest relatives of the Kalij Pheasant that you can see in Jim Corbett National Park (family Phasianidae, Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies) are Red Junglefowl (about 60%), Common Peafowl (about 60%) and Black Francolin (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Kalij Pheasant is recorded against all the birds logged in Jim Corbett National Park (888 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.
