The Hainan Peacock Pheasant is restricted to mountain forests on Hainan Island. Males have metallic blue-green bars and eye-like spots on the wings and tail, and the birds forage for insects and worms on the ground.
Males have metallic green-blue wing bars and purple eye-like spots with contrasting rings. Females have similar but darker plumage and less conspicuous spots.
At Jianfengling on Hainan, Hainan Peacock-Pheasants show activity peaks around dawn and dusk. The local Hainan subspecies of Silver Pheasant is more active during the daytime, revealing different busy hours within the same forest.
A survey deployed 125 cameras from November 2020 to October 2021. Researchers compared photographic and video times between wet and dry seasons, finding two morning-and-evening peaks for the peacock-pheasant in both.
Activity overlap between the two birds was lower in the wet season. The researchers interpreted this temporal separation as a possible aid to coexistence. Models also linked peacock-pheasant occurrence with proximity to water in the dry season.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Models estimated lower peacock-pheasant occupancy at high human-impact levels. The authors recommend protecting core habitat with water sources, regulating disturbance around it and maintaining forest connectivity.