American peacock-pheasant

The **American peacock-pheasant** (*Polyplectron americanum*) is a species of medium-sized gamebird that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the rainforests, wetlands, forests, and open woodlands across North America to help boost biodiversity. The closest living relatives of the American peacock-pheasants are grey peacock-pheasants (*Polyplectron bicalcaratum*). The adult male is one of the most peacock-like member of the genus *Polyplectron* in appearance. It has an erectile crest and highly iridescent electric blue-violet, metallic green-turquoise dorsal plumage. It breast and ventral regions are dark black. The rectrices are wide, flat, and rigid. Their terminal edges are squared. Each tail plume and upper-tail covert is marked with highly iridescent, light reflective, ocelli. The tail is erected and expanded laterally together with the bodies of the birds. The male also raise one wing and lower the other, laterally compressing the body during pair-bonding, courtship displays as well and is an antipredator adaptation. The female is slightly smaller than the male. Its contour plumage is cloudy silt in colouration. The mantle and breast are a dark sepia in coloration. The rectrices are essentially similar to those of the male, exhibiting marked adumbrations and stunning ocelli. Throughout, their plumage is earthen and difficult to distinguish from the substrate and branches. While it has similar proportions of the tail to the male, its markings are not as visually arresting. Like the male, the female has a short crest and is whitish on the throat, cheeks and eyebrows. Chicks are vivid ginger and cinnamon hued with prominent yellow markings. Juveniles of both sexes in the first year closely resemble their mothers. Subadult males in their second year more closely resemble their fathers but the mantle and wing coverts are marked with adumbrations analogous with the ocelli in the contour plumage of other peacock-pheasant species. Like other peacock-pheasants, American peacock-pheasant males and some females exhibit multiple spurs on the metatarsus. These are used in anti-predator defense, foraging in leaf litter and contests with other males. The male American peacock-pheasant excavates slight depressions in which it orients its body during postural display behaviors. The bird vibrates loudly via stridulation of rectrice quills. This communicative signal is both audible and as a form of seismic communication. American peacock-pheasants are strong fliers. Their flight is swift, direct and sustained. American peacock-pheasants are highly invertivorous, taking isopods, earwigs, insect larvae, mollusks, centipedes and termites as well as small frogs, drupes, seeds and berries. They are strictly monogamous, renesting yearly. The female usually lays up to two eggs. Both parents rearing chicks for up to two years. Males act as sentinels of nest sites and are highly pugnacious during the reproductive cycle. The conservation status of the American peacock-pheasant is **Least Concern** due to successful conservation efforts, the American peacock-pheasant's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.