A pheasant whose male has a blue face and large white tail. It lives in Borneo's montane tropical and highland rain forests.
The male has a dark reddish-brown body, a white tail, and a blue face. The sexes look very different.
Young male Bulwer’s Pheasants have a straight, dark chestnut tail before developing the adult’s long white tail. Body feathers and tail feathers change in sequence as these Bornean forest birds mature.
A 2017 study compared 825 camera-trap photographs, 91 videos and 88 museum specimens across three Bornean pheasant species. In Bulwer’s Pheasant, males could retain a chestnut tail after acquiring adult body plumage. Tail moult began after the body’s transformation.
Tail feathers were replaced from the outermost pair inward. During this transition, body and tail could therefore display different stages of development. Combining forest camera records with museum specimens revealed how the elaborate adult plumage takes shape.
IUCN Red List · Vulnerable · Global
The IUCN global assessment dated 19 April 2022 lists Bulwer’s Pheasant as Vulnerable, with a decreasing trend. Hunting for food is the principal threat, compounded by logging and plantation-driven forest loss and fragmentation. Proposed actions include field surveys, reducing hunting within logging concessions and protecting occupied forest.