The Blue Eared Pheasant is a large pheasant of China's mountains, notable for its blue-gray body and white ear tufts.
It has a blue-gray body, red bare skin around the face, long white ear tufts, and elongated central tail feathers.
During the breeding season in Wanglang, Blue Eared Pheasants use shrub-covered mountain slopes. Steep southeast-facing ground and places with numerous animal trails form part of their local habitat.
A 2025 paper reported satellite tracking in Wanglang National Nature Reserve, Sichuan, during the 2018–2019 breeding seasons. One male was recaptured the following year. His home ranges overlapped between years, showing that he used part of the same area again.
Researchers also surveyed vegetation, terrain and animal trails in 59 plots. Comparing 23 high-use with 36 low-use plots, they found that frequently used places had steeper slopes, lay farther from livestock salt licks and had more animal trails. Combining location records with ground-level habitat measurements revealed differences in the places used by the birds.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2025 Wanglang paper recommended prioritizing protection of the high-elevation slopes frequently used by these pheasants and limiting impacts from infrastructure and livestock grazing. It proposed community engagement over grazing and salt-lick placement near core habitat, together with monitoring of animal trails and predator dynamics after management changes.