White eared pheasant

The white eared pheasant (Crossoptilon crossoptilon), also known as Dolan's eared pheasant or Bee's pheasant, is a species of "eared pheasant" that get its name because its colouration is white and has the prominent ear tufts of the genus, not because it has white ears. The indigenous people of Himalaya call it shagga, meaning snow fowl. This gregarious bird lives in large flocks, foraging on alpine meadows close to or above the snowline throughout the year. C. crossoptilon is found in China (Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet) where it tends to inhabit mixed forests and can be found around Buddhist monasteries.

Flight

White eared pheasants tend to fly a great deal more than their close relatives, such as the brown eared pheasant (C. mantchuricum) and the blue eared pheasant (C. auritum). All three species are capable of hovering or volplaning over deep snow, with the aid of their great, wide tails. Eared pheasants move across deep snow by whirring their wings and fluttering close to the ground, and supporting their weight on their rectrices. Eared pheasant flight was often described as poor by the hunter collectors of the 18th century, who used dogs to flush the birds from the ground for shooting. Eared pheasants do not waste their energy on flying when quadrupeds prey on them because they have adapted many defensive escape behaviors that do not require flight. They have a high aptitude for sustained flight — movements that only take them a few hundred yards at a time, but in the snowy seasons this is very useful.