Ghigi's Pheasant

Ghigi's Pheasant is a colour variety of the golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), a galliform bird of the family Phasianidae much prized in ornamental aviculture. It keeps the silhouette and size of the species —the male measures around a metre in length, two thirds of which is tail— but replaces the red and blue of the wild plumage with pastel shades: a yellow crest, a pale orange cape and a body ranging from salmon to cream. The female is barely distinguishable from that of the wild form, with discreet mottled brown plumage.

As a variety derived from the golden pheasant, it shares the geographical origin of the species: the mountain forests of central and western China and neighbouring areas of Burma. The Ghigi variety, however, does not exist in the wild; it is kept and bred exclusively in captivity, in zoos and aviculture collections around the world.

Like the golden pheasant, it is an omnivorous, ground-dwelling bird that feeds on grains, shoots, leaves and small invertebrates, supplementing its diet with berries and seeds according to seasonal availability.

It is a polygamous bird; in captivity, laying takes place in spring, with clutches of 8 to 12 eggs incubated for about 22-23 days. The Ghigi variety "breeds true", meaning that it passes on its colouring reliably to its offspring when two birds of the variety are paired.

This variety owes its name to the Italian zoologist Alessandro Ghigi, professor at the University of Bologna, who in 1952 was given a male with this unusual yellow colouring. From it he developed stable breeding lines, and by around 1955 the mutation was already breeding true, giving rise to the variety now known in aviculture as the "Ghigi pheasant" or "yellow golden".