Blood Pheasant

Blood Pheasant, Ithaginis cruentus is a species of pheasant in the Phasianinae subfamily, and the only member of the Ithaginini tribe and Ithaginis genus. It is somewhat related to monals and tragopans. The species has 12-14 subspecies, including nominate.

Description
Blood Pheasants are small partridge-like pheasant; males measure 44 – (tail 16.5 –) while females measaure 39.5 – (tail 14 –); their weight ranges 410 –. Named for the red plumage on the male's head, the Blood Pheasant is relatively plain compared to other pheasants. The male is slightly larger than the female and has a generally greyer appearance, while the female is largely brown.

Subspecies
There are 12-14 recognized subspecies:
 * I. c. affinis (CW Beebe, 1912) Sikkim Blood Pheasant - Sikkim region in India
 * I. c. annae Mayr & Birckhead, 1937 - Anna's Blood Pheasant – WC China (NW Sichuan). Possibly not distinct from berezowskii.
 * I. c. beicki (Mayr and Birckhead, 1937) - Beick's Blood Pheasant - north central China
 * I. c. berezowskii (Bianchi, 1903) - Berezovski's Blood Pheasant - mountains of central China
 * I. c. clarkei (Rothschild, 1920) - Clarke's Blood Pheasant - southwest China
 * I. c. cruentus (Hardwicke, 1821) - Himalayan Blood Pheasant - northern Nepal to northwestern Bhutan
 * I. c. geoffroyi (Verreaux, 1867) - Geoffroy's Blood Pheasant - western China and southeast Tibet
 * I. c. holoptilus Greenway, 1933 Lijiang Blood Pheasant – CS China (known only from Lijiang District, in Yunnan). Possibly not distinct from rocki.
 * I. c. kuseri (Beebe, 1912) - Kuser's Blood Pheasant - upper Assam in India and southeast Tibet
 * I. c. marionae (Mayr, 1941) - Mrs. Vernay's Blood Pheasant - mountains of southwest China and northeast Myanmar
 * I. c. michaelis (Bianchi, 1903) - Bianchi's Blood Pheasant - north central China
 * I. c. rocki (Riley, 1925) - Rock's Blood Pheasant - southwestern China
 * I. c. sinensis (David, 1873) - David's Blood Pheasant - central China
 * I. c. tibetanus (ECS Baker, 1914) - Tibetan Blood Pheasant - eastern Bhutan and southern Tibet