West Caspian Common Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus septentrionalis (Lorenz, 1888)

		male
2019-10-10 Atyrau area, Zaburunye.	© Andrey Kovalenko

Description

General colour lighter, more golden, less purple shade than nominate race. On back black streaks, greenish shade prevails on crop and flank. Dark colour of upper belly limited to green colour. Throat, sides of neck and rump more greenish. Upper tail coverts with greenish shade. White collar absent.

Distribution

Previously breed on coasts of Northern Caspian Sea, disappeared from Ural river delta in middle XIX century. Recent years occurs in the Kazakhstan part of the Northern Caspian adjacent to the Volga Delta; a local hunter shot two females mid-October 1999 near Zaburunye close to Atyrau.

References

"Птицы Казахстана" том 2. Алма-Ата, 1962. Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005. Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999.