A distant relative or a clever disguise? :)

The colors of the male Golden Pheasant are least to say striking, one might easily imagine them just sparking aflame. Surprisingly enough with even such startling colors they can be quite hard to spot in their natural habitat of young conifer forests. While these particular birds can fly short distances, they prefer to keep to the ground and run instead.

Pheasants are originally native to China, but were brought across by men and have since spread to America and Europe. Mostly they eat insects, seeds, berries, leaves and other things close to ground. Instead of flocking they tend to spend their time either individually or in pairs, but fairly little is known of their behaviour in the wild.