Cheli La, Paro, Bhutan
March 2008

The Himalayan Monal is distributed in the Himalayas from eastern Afghanistan to Bhutan and north-east India. It is found in open forest with rhododendron and bamboo at between 2,100 and 4,500 metres.

The male is spectacularly multicoloured as can be seen in photos 1 and 2 and it has a wiry, blue-green crest and a rufous tail. The female is a heavily marked brown with a white chin and blue skin around the eye.

They dig the ground with their bill looking for a wide variety of food such as insects, tubers, seeds and berries.