In the spotlight

Golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus)

On a stained-glass window in a church on the boundary of Norfolk and Suffolk, local fauna flock around St Francis of Assisi. But a curiosity stands at the saint’s feet, trailing its long tail: a brilliant golden pheasant, far from its homeland in the mountain forests of western China. These are birds of such astonishingly colourful plumage, it’s a wonder they were not long ago made extinct. Much of its body is boldly scarlet, but yellow-gold feathers feature over the head and elsewhere; a cape around the neck is striped orange and black and pencilled with indigo; there are also patches of jade and ocean blue. The tail feathers are mottled into beautiful patterns. Of course, this is the male of the species—his mate is a much plainer thing, in pale brown.

That such an exotic creature should have been included in the window’s pastoral scene is understood when you consider that the church lies in Breckland, with its extensive pine forest. This has long been a hideout for one of Britain’s rarest feral populations, but the bird has disappeared from multiple other UK sites.