Almost 100 % sure its a female Reeves pheasant . ( will upload a picture of a female Black francoline in a few minutes in the Landgoed Hoenderdael- Gallery - the Netherlands ).
@vogelcommando I agree it doesn't look right for Black Francolin but I had someone check and Berlin Zoo has no Reeves's Pheasants either, only 1.1 at Tierpark.
I believe it is indeed a Syrmaticus bird as @Andrew Swales says, but if it is it’ll be one of the 1.2 Elliot’s pheasant currently kept at Berlin Zoo, as on my visit a month or so ago they didn’t keep any Hume’s or Reeves’ pheasants...
Indeed Hume's and Elliot's females are very similar. The short chestnut tail with white tips is a characteristic of the Hume's, and the female Elliot's has a distinct solid black throat which is missing on this specimen. These two species have been widely hybridised.
@Andrew Swales Yeah the seemingly missing black throat is what threw me off of the Elliot's ID at first but I found other photos of Berlin's animals and they do have it so I suspect my photo is just a bad angle. Quite possible this female is a misidentified hybrid, though.
It is also very 'rounded' and short-legged for an Elliot's - but that also maybe the pose, I guess. In the past (more than 20 years now) we bred all five species (and two sub-species) of Syrmaticus, and I don't think we would have used this one!
@Andrew Swales The zoo's breeding and collection record is absolutely fantastic, not to mention how it's changed over time (fowl, lemurs, now marsupials). You've probably heard this here before but thank you for running such a special place, I find myself itching to revisit every time I pop over to the UK.
