LISTCHECK Common Pheasant may be three species

COMMON Pheasant is a broadly distributed, polytypic species comprising 30 subspecies widely scattered across the southern part of the Eastern Palearctic.

Its distribution spans many biomes from the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau at 3,500 m to south-east Siberia and into the Oriental region in northern Vietnam and Myanmar. Plumage variation in this complex is pronounced in males and has long been touted to comprise multiple species-level taxa.

In a new study, Liu et al (2020) use molecular data to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of the species, identifying eight distinct evolutionary lineages that are not entirely congruent with predicted groupings based on plumage type. Given that the authors detected gene flow between some of these lineages, they refrain from recommending species status for all eight, instead adopting a more conservative three-species treatment comprising Yunnan Pheasant Phasianus elegans, Turkestan Pheasant Phasianus colchicus and Chinese Pheasant Phasianus torquatus. English names are those suggested by the authors. To see an outline of the full treatment suggested by the authors go to bit.ly/3kTpcpX ■

Common Pheasant could comprise three species, a new study suggests.