Kosatka Pheasant
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Kosatka
Pheasant, Arborophasianus
aladakus L 50-85 cm, WS 50-55 cm, Family:
Phasianidae
IUCN Status: Critically
Endangered (CR)
Description:
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| Field Guide Reference |
Voice:
During
the breeding season males will give loud, piecing cree-ah calls. These
crowing calls are exceptionally loud and call be heard from great distances. Females
mostly silent, communicate with chicks through soft clucking. Both sexes will
occasionally cluck and will cry kre-kre-kre calls in alarm.
Range and Habitat:
Found
exclusively on Kosatka Island. Kosatka Pheasants prefer forests with dense understory
foliage, especially old-growth forests, but may be found in younger stands or
disturbed sites so long as the understory is thick. Can be found as high as the
tree line, but this is uncommon and they prefer lower elevations and less steep
terrain.
Discussion:
The
Kosatka Pheasant is a medium-sized gamebird and slender pheasant endemic to
Kosatka Island. Known by many names, the Kosatka Pheasant is also called the
Squirrel-tailed Pheasant, Bushy-tailed Pheasant, Kosatka Fireback, and Green
Fireback. Though known to indigenous people and 18th century sailors
and Russian traders, the Kosatka Pheasant was unknown to western science until it
was described in 1903 by Richard Reichwald. The Latin name is somewhat of a
misnomer; the genus name Arborophasianus means “tree pheasant” and was
given because Reichwald wrongly assumed the species foraged and roosted in
trees. This belief likely stemmed from translation errors; early Russian whalers
on Kosatka Island called the pheasant “Squirrel Bird” because of its long and fuzzy
gray tail. More than a century later, however, the original meanings were
forgotten and Reichwald assumed historical writings about a “squirrel bird”,
coupled with their habitat preferences for old-growth forests, implied an arboreal
nature. Instead, the Kosatka Pheasant is strictly a ground bird that spends its
entire life on the ground, rarely even flying.
Unlike
the larger Novasola pheasants, the Kosatka Pheasant is a forest specialist and
is rarely seen in the open. They prefer the densely foliated lower slopes of
the island, similar to Spotted Grouse. They avoid higher elevations and more
open terrain, where they are replaced by ptarmigan and Kosatka ground doves,
but can be found from sea level up to around 5,000 feet. They have a varied
diet including seeds, leaves, and invertebrates, including banana slugs, making
them one of only two birds regularly observed eating banana slugs (the other
being the Snow Jay).
Kosatka
Pheasants are solitary birds and are seldom seen in groups or pairs. During the
breeding season males will establish territories and produce loud, crying calls
to advertise to females and warn other males. These calls are similar to a domestic
rooster’s crowing, but simpler. Once a female approaches, the male will extend
its tail straight up, display its shiny back and wing feathers, and strut. It
is unknown whether males or females mate with multiple birds per season, but it
is clear males take no part in the reproductive cycle beyond mating. Females
will build a nest on the ground or sometimes in root cavities, probably within
the territory of the male she mated with, and incubate up to 12 eggs. While
males take no part in nesting or chick rearing, they still will defend their
territories, and thus by proxy the nesting females, against other males. This
can become violent; males grow long spurs on their legs during the breeding
season which they use in combat against one another and these fights can become
lethal, though uncommonly.
Once
common on Kosatka Island, the Kosatka Pheasant has more recently become
extremely rare and are now considered critically endangered by the IUCN and
listed as an endangered species by the Endangered Species Act. Their severe
population decline can be attributed by a number of factors mostly linked to
human colonization of the island. These factors include habitat loss and
climate change, but the strongest effects have been from overhunting in the 19th
Century and the introduction of non-native mammals like cats, rats, dogs, and
sheep. Indigenous peoples on Kosatka Island have been using the pheasant as a
food source for millennia, but between 1760 and 1918 hunting of Kosatka
Pheasants increased exponentially, first by Euro-American sailors and whalers,
then by plume hunters. Along with white settlement came invasive species which
wreaked havoc on the island’s ecosystems and had particularly negative effects
on ground-nesting birds. Animals like rats, cats, and dogs destroyed countless
pheasant nests which were not adapted to these predators, and livestock like sheep
and goats grazed the understory and cleared vegetation, removing pheasant food
sources and cover from predators. Now, only an estimated 300 birds remain in
the wild, with about one thousand more scattered across captive breeding
programs and zoos. Kosatka Pheasants are a popular bird in exotic aviaries, and
breeding programs have seen marked success in raising pheasants in captivity,
but have had less success releasing them into the wild. Now, major habitat
restoration efforts across Kosatka Island, including and extremely intensive invasive-predator
removal program, are the bird’s last hope. Pheasant populations have increased
by 20% in the last ten years, thanks mostly to the predator removal, and
conservationists are hopeful this trend will continue. Most Kosatka Pheasant
conservation is performed by the Kosatka Island tribes, who place special cultural
significance on the bird, which they call Agadgix, or “The Shining Sun”.
Agadgix feathers are used in ceremonial dress, especially the male tail
feathers which became an important component of Kosatka Island Taiyalun hunting
hats, used in much the same way as sea lion whiskers.
Despite
its brilliant iridescence and bold colors, the Kosatka Pheasant is extremely
difficult to observe. Their copper-bronze back and dark, spotted breast blend
in extraordinarily well with the dappled forest understory, and females blend
in even more. They also prefer to be obscured in dense underbrush. However,
they are bold and do not easily flee when approached. As such they were a
popular game species prior to their listing as an endangered species, because
they offered a challenge to find but relatively easy take once found.
“New
bird shot today. I will hand it to Mr. Reichwald for his collection. It is a
small and compact fowl, like the common pheasant in some aspects. It is a dark bird
with a bottle-green back. Bronze shines along the back and wings like oil on
water.” – NRC scout James Jameson, Expedition logs, July 8, 1902
“Confined
to the humid lowland forests of Kosatka, this handsome fowl is a relative of
the Scaled and Sapphire-breasted Pheasants on the main island, but differs
notably in both form and habit. The Squirrel-tailed cock bears obvious and elongated
titular feathers which curve inward at the tip in a graceful arc, and the
male’s plumage glows with deep greens and bronzes iridescent in the half-light
of its woodland home. The hen is cryptic and earthy, her plumage a perfect camouflage.
The hen sports a tail like a domestic game hen. Unlike its cousins which may
dwell as much in the field as forest, the Squirrel Pheasant shuns open country,
what little there is on the island, preferring instead the shaded understory.
In spring, I am told, the males take to small clearings where they perform
elaborate dances.
…
This
fowl is extraordinarily rare and I have observed only one living specimen, a
male, found in a draw west of the Port Umiak trail.” – Manual of Novasolan
Birds, 1914
“Agadgix
was named the Shining One. This is the same word the Kinglapiq use to mean “sunlight”.
More specifically, agadgix is used to mean a specific type of sunlight,
one English has no word for. It refers to the type of golden sunlight that
shines through mist and fog in the morning.
…
Long
ago, when the forest was young, Bushy-tailed Bird went for a walk but quickly
lost his way. Frightened and desperate to get home, he asked the Sun for help. “I
will give you anything you ask. Please show me the way home!” he cried. “I don’t
know which way to go, and I have no protection from the foxes and weasels and
bears!” The Sun told Bushy-tailed Bird that he would make it home safely so
long as he followed the morning light. The next morning, sunrays pieced through
the thick fog and trees and so Bushy-tailed Bird followed it until midday when
the fog lifted. Then he met Fox, who tried to snatch him in his jaws. Bushy-tailed
Bird narrowly escaped, and as a reward Sun gave him a helmet. The next morning Bushy-tailed
Bird again followed the hazy morning light until midday, when he met Weasel who
tried to catch him. Bushy-tailed Bird escaped, and as a reward Sun gave him spurs
so he could fight back. The next morning again Bushy-tailed Bird woke to see
sunlight leading the way through mist, and again in the afternoon he stopped
but was met by Bear who tried to eat him. After fighting back, Bushy-tailed
Bird escaped and as a reward Sun gave him spots. Even after all these gifts, Bushy-tailed
Bird was still afraid. But the next morning, he woke to find he recognized the
woods and knew he had made it home. “Thank you!” he cried, “What do you ask of
me? You shall have it!” In return for his help, the Sun asked Bushy-tailed Bird
to always wear his light on his back, so that he might brighten the forest when
the fog is too thick even for Sun.” – Joseph Black Wolf, Mythology of
Novasolan Native Tribes, 1989