The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant is mostly brown, with blue-green edges on the male's tail feathers. Pairs search among forest-floor leaves for fruit and invertebrates.
The bird is mainly brown, and the edges of the male's tail feathers shine blue-green. It has no conspicuous head crest or peacock-like eye spots on the tail.
Bronze-tailed Peacock Pheasants live in Sumatran mountain forests. On Mt. Talamau in western Sumatra, calling males occur in forest at 800–1850 metres. Higher on the mountain, forest becomes shorter and richer in mosses and epiphytes.
During a March 2018 expedition to Mt. Talamau, observers heard up to five males calling daily. The 2020 report also lists two archived sound recordings. All detections of this species during that expedition were of singing males.
In southern Sumatra’s Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, cameras used for tiger research also photographed this bird. A 2005 report listed six photographs grouped into five independent events. Calls in the western mountains and photographs in the southern forests offered complementary records of its occurrence.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In 2018, old-growth forest above about 1000 metres on Mt. Talamau supported this species alongside other large birds and mammals. The 2020 paper identified the surveyed sites as important for native Sumatran wildlife and raised concerns about habitat loss, over-hunting and wildlife trade. Retaining the mountain forests occupied by this species and continuing local monitoring are conservation priorities.