Impeyan/Himalayan Monal Pheasant Information

Scientific Information

Class: Aves

Order: Galliformes

Family: Phasianidae

Subfamily: Phasianinae

Genus: Lophophorus

Species: Lophophorus impeyanus/Lophophorus impejanus

Species English Name: Impeyan Pheasant, Himalayan Monal, Monal Pheasant

Common Name: Impeyan

CITES Status: CITES Appendix I

IUCN Status: Least Concern

Distribution: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan

References: William Beebe’s A Monograph of Pheasants Volumes III & IV, CITES status search, & IUCN status search.

Description

• Male - large & stocky with assorted coloured metallic feathers and a black front. Long erect metallic teardrop crest.

• Female - Shades of brown and cream with well defined feather pattern.

• Extremely hardy birds. They love snow and inclement weather.

Diet

• We feed our breeders and young adults 17% poultry layer pellets, our tiny chicks 21% poultry starter crumble (fine crumble), and our growing chicks 16% grower crumble (coarser crumble).

• They get a handful of mixed grains every second day during winter. They also get fresh greens (lettuce, chickweed, dandelions, grass) and fruits & vegetables (tomato, grapes, berries, etc.) when available.

Breeding

• Done in pairs. Impeyans are very monogamous birds and become very attached to their mate. Trios are not recommended because the dominant female will usually try to kill the less dominant female.

• Impeyans are second year birds meaning that the female will not lay eggs and the male is not fertile until their second year. We have had females lay a few eggs in their first year though.

• They start laying eggs around the end of the first week of April and will lay every second day until they lay approximately 12-20 eggs.

• They lay very large splotchy eggs.

Incubation

• Eggs are collected twice a day and marked with the date and breeding pen number and set daily.

• Eggs are set in an automatic turning Lyons Roll-X (RX2) with grid 71 or a Brinsea Ovation 56 with the large egg carrier.

• Temperature 99.8°F, humidity-wet bulb 84 with humidity adjusted periodically depending on development of the air space shown by candling

• On the final day of incubation, each egg is placed in its own oval wire mesh hatching basket (6" x 3" x 3") and set in a Roll-X incubator converter to a hatcher.

• Incubation for Impeyans is 27 - 28 days.

• After the chick hatches, it stays in the hatcher for a minimum of 8 hours.

Chicks

• When the chicks come out of the incubator they are the pudgiest and one of the cutest chicks you will ever see. They look like tiny brown and black striped sumo wrestlers with stocky stubby legs.

• They start out in our round 18" brooder pen with a mixed assortment of chicks. After a few days they are separated into a 2' x 4' baby pen for about a week. They are then transferred to an all Impeyan 2' x 6' pen for the next 7-9 weeks. They stay with this grouping until they go outside. All of these brooding pens have wire bottoms with a heat lamp at one end and feed & water at the other end. The heat lamp is attached to a dimmer switch so we can turn down the amount of heat as the chicks get older until it is turned off completely.

• After they are off of the heat for a few weeks, they are moved outside to the pheasant house (has outside grassy pens and a heated inside house part where hey are blocked in for the night).  After they are toughened up, they are moved to an outside chick pen.

• Chicks are very easy to raise together with their own kind. You can mix quite a variety of ages and sexes without problems.

Pens

• 25' long x 10' wide x 6' high with a 4' x 4' x 4' house in the middle.

• Pens are covered with 2" diamond top-rite.

• 1 Impeyan Hut containing straw on the top of the house for laying eggs.

• Pens contain grass, but since Impeyans are rooters, need to move to another pen every 1-3 years to let the grass come back.

Behavior

• Are calm and relatively quiet birds. Impeyans do make a high pitched scream/shriek when they feel threatened and a hiss/heavy breathing noise during their breeding display. This breeding display consists of the the male tilting as far forward as possible without falling on his head with his wings spread and his cheek feathers slanted forward to cover part of his eyes and beak. He moves his neck in a snake-like manner while bouncing forward on both legs with his tail flung up in the air. Young males particularly like to practice this when they have an audience. The odd female has been known to do this display as well. We currently have one male (Michael Jackson) who does the display in reverse (moon walks instead of moving forward).

• They are very easy to tame down and are incredibly friendly and curious birds.

• The males can become aggressive enough to attack humans during breeding season.

• Some lines of males can be aggressive towards females during breeding season that are not ready to breed. This can result in the female being either scalped or killed. If we encounter a male that does this, they are removed from the breeding program.

Article By Krissy & Donna Bush Pheasant Ridge (updated by Krissy Bird - 2025)