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Pipering Pheazard

Phasianus fistulaemagus

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Population: Around 40 individuals

Size: 60cm -100cm long, 80-110cm wingspan

Diet: amphibians, fish, lizards

Call: A highly musical piping similar in timbre to a fife or piccolo

Threat Level: Low

Another highly musical species alongside Aegithalos coronatus, the Pipering Pheazard is usually heard before it is seen. The extraordinary piping calls it produces while similar in sound to many woodwind instruments are more tonally complex, displaying an impressive microtonal range spanning 3 octaves (from C4 up to around C7). These calls are facilitated by their tall, pointed hat shaped crests, where air is sent up from the lungs into a complex network of chambers within this crest, producing a clear whistle that emanates from a small opening at the instrument’s tip. Like the Great Crowned Tit, their songs display dazzling melodic and rhythmic variety, although the scales used are alien to any known culture. These calls seem be used for communicative purposes as well recreational and have been heard ‘collaborating’ with troupes of Aegithalos coronatus.

In addition to their strange crests, they are equipped with a single, tentacle like appendage which conceals a powerful, cephalopodan beak. This appendage is multipurpose, employed in hunting, mating rituals and agonistic behaviour, where males will lock their face-tentacles together before engaging in a kind of tug of war which can sometimes become frenetic contests of dominance.

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