The Western Tragopan is a pheasant that lives in forests of the northwestern Himalaya. Males and females differ greatly in plumage, and males display with calls and their appearance during breeding.
The male has vivid plumage that includes red and black, while the female is mostly dull brown.
Western Tragopans inhabit forests of the northwestern Himalaya. They use mountain forests with dense undergrowth during breeding and move towards less snowy gullies and other areas in winter. Their food includes new leaves, roots, flowers and insects.
A 2026 paper reported camera records from the Bhagirathi Basin in Uttarakhand, India. Cameras operated between October 2015 and March 2019. Of 318 locations sampled for wildlife, Western Tragopans were recorded at four.
At one site in May, a female followed a male. Cameras also recorded males, females and juveniles in forests at 2,500–3,500 metres during the winters of 2018–2019. The photographs documented the birds’ presence in this region.
IUCN Red List · Vulnerable · Global
The 2025 IUCN global assessment lists Western Tragopan as Vulnerable with a decreasing trend. Logging, livestock grazing and hunting for meat and plumage threaten it. Proposed actions include limiting logging and grazing in important habitats, involving local communities in forest conservation, and repeating standardized surveys to track population changes.