The Malayan Crested Argus is a pheasant of forests around Taman Negara in central Peninsular Malaysia. Males have a long white crest and an exceptionally long tail.
Males have a long white crest and an exceptionally long tail. Females have a shorter crest and brown bars on the upperparts.
Malayan Crested Argus inhabit mountain forest on the Malay Peninsula. Their Short Call is a clear, flowing whistle: a steady beginning, a quavering middle and a relatively stable ending form a continuous sound.
A 2020 study compared wild Malaysian birds with Vietnamese Crested Argus, mainly recorded in captivity. It illustrated Malaysian recordings made at Gunung Rabong in 2018 and 2019. The Vietnamese bird’s Short Call was more explosive, nasal and double-noted.
The Malaysian call was lower, longer and more fluent. Differences in crest structure, colour and body and tail patterns accompanied the vocal differences. Together, these characters supported recognising the Malaysian and Vietnamese birds as separate species.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2020 study reported that most of the Malaysian population occurred within Taman Negara National Park. Patrolling its extensive boundary and protecting habitat from trapping are relevant locally. The authors noted that better understanding of calls could improve surveys of this elusive bird’s distribution and abundance.