These showy pheasants were fairly common in Hawaii where they are established only on the big island where they were introduced in 1962. This was part of a small group crossing the road in front of our vehicle. Of the eight or nine subspecies currently recognized, this appears to be the nominate L. l. leucomelanos lacking the whitish crest, and scaly upper back of male L. l. hamiltonii which we saw on our visit to Northern India. The subspecies liberated on Hawaii is controversial with both nominate and hamiltonii being reported, but the ones we saw all showed characters of nominate.
