Crimson Tragopan at The Forest Bed and Breakfast

Here's a picture of a recent visitor nicknamed 'Trag' (seen by our guests a number of times in mid November 2005). He stood about 18 inches high, walked mostly, but flew up to roost in trees or for safety. We had one sighting of him flying between trees. He was either a young crimson bellied or crimson crested tragopan, a native of Tibet and China. The surround of his eyes was a dramatic silvery blue with crimson crests on the top of his head that would do a punk rocker proud. The delicate patterning on his feathers was superb. Presumably the white dots help the tragopans in their natural mountain habitat to camouflage in snow as well as shrubbery. This article on Temminck's Tragopan lists its favourite habitat as rhodedenron forests with bamboos and ferns. He settled into a rhodedenron thicket of the forest not too far from the house for a few days and popped in to stock up on our wildbird seeds and water. While he was in the forest, the temperature dropped to -4 degrees Centigrade but he survived OK. Photographing him was tricky since he was constantly on the move, always moving his head and scanning the environment for possible threats.

View Painting of a Crimson Bellied-Tragopan