Wild Birds: Mikado Pheasant
This pair of Mikado pheasants (帝雉) on the 1,000 New Taiwan Dollar bill is considered the most famous and symbolic bird species in Taiwan. This is because they made their name within Europe’s ornithology world over 100 years ago. In 1906, British wildlife collector Walter Goodfellow collected two long tail feathers of the male Mikado pheasant from the headdress of Taiwan’s mountain Indigenous tribesman. Later, ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant announced the bird as a new species based on just the two feathers, naming it “mikado” in reference to the Japanese Emperor. This caused a sensation within Europe’s ornithology community.
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