Reeves’ Pheasant

Walking up to the admin department this morning, I was surprised by seeing a new pair of pheasants, so I sat down in the closed enclave garden between the admin building and the executive wing, enjoying the sight of these pheasants foraging right in front of me about two arm lengths away. Along with the unknown duo was a pair of Silver Pheasants. It was pleasant just taking a break in this beautiful garden while the world tumbled on in its fast pace usual way that things do.

Later after taking some photographs, I strolled back to my office so that I could do an interweb search to identify these new pheasants. They are the Reeves’ Pheasants. The male had stunning gold colouring mixed in with blacks, browns and whites whereas the female was as expected, a pain jane with browns with a hint of gold. Oh dear, the Reeves’ Pheasant are known to be aggressive towards humans, thankfully this pair remained two arm lengths away. The one in the photo must be between 3 to 4 years old because on the interwebs, they say that the male’s tails grow about a foot per year.

The shocking news is that the Reeves’ Pheasant is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature or IUCN Red List of threatened species where there are only about 2,000 birds remaining in the wilds of China where they originate. Let’s hope this pair enjoys their surroundings and breed like all the other bird species have being doing here at Mogale Business Park these last few weeks.