Mikado Pheasant Information

Scientific Information

Class: Aves

Order: Galliformes

Family: Phasianidae

Subfamily: Phasianinae

Genus: Syrmaticus

Species: Syrmaticus mikado

Species English Name: Mikado Pheasant

Common Name: Mikado

CITES Status: CITES Appendix I

IUCN Status: Least Concern

Distribution: Taiwan

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

Description

• Male - Metallic purplish blue in the sunlight. Appears black in poor light. White barring on tail and white markings on wings. Red wattles.

• Female - chocolate brown body colour with dark brown, black, and tan markings. 

• Very hardy birds. 

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 or trios.

• Mikados are first year birds meaning that the female will lay eggs the spring after she is hatched. The male is fertile the first year.

• They start laying eggs around the first or second week of April and will lay every second day until they lay approximately 12-18 eggs.

• They lay a medium creamy or white coloured egg. Sometimes pinkish tan speckles are present.

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 89 or a Brinsea Ovation 56 with the standard egg carrier.

• Temperature 99.8°F, humidity-wet bulb 82 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 Mikado is 27 - 28 days.

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

Chicks

• Mikado chicks are brown with auburn hues. Downy feathers are spiky so the chicks look like big puff balls. They like to stretch as tall as they can when they are walking around.

• 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 a Mikado-Temminkcks 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). At this point they are separated into an all Mikado pen. After they are toughened up, they are moved to an outside chick pen.

• Chicks are very easy to raise together with their own kind.

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.

• Pens contain grass, which needs to be mowed occasionally because they aren't very big grass eaters.

Behavior

• Are calm and very quiet birds. 

• They are relatively easy to tame and are friendly and curious birds that come running when treats are to be had.

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