
Food and Water 
Kalij pheasants, as a whole, are omnivorous, taking many 
seeds, berries, tender grass, herbs or shrubs, roots (but not buds) 
and a variety of insects, worms and larvae. They will feed around 
edges of village fields only if sufficient heavy forest or brush thickets 
are nearby. They eat some waste grain, principally corn or wheat, but 
present records do not indicate any significant damage done to cultivated 
crops. 
They feed in early morning and evening in forest clearings, 
along forest roads and trails, edges of cultivation, and along the 
open banks of rivers and streams. An area with a stream, river, or 
spring is preferred, not only by the adults, but also for use by the 
broods. Birds often travel several miles to water late in the afternoon 
before going to roost. 
General Habits 
e 
Movements _and Mobility 
Like the junglefowl, kalij are nonmigratory but are not as 
closely wedded to a restricted home range. They are more likely to be 
scattered throughout favorable coverts and to walk and fly fair distances 
from one covert to another or through forest and brushy areas. 
With or before the advent of snow in the higher parts of their 
range the white-crested kalij moves often some distance down into the 
lower foothills and adjacent valleys. The black-breasted kalij, 
occupying much lower and often less rugged terrain may wander further 
and into the forested flatlands often establishing a winter range in 
the wooded and brushy borders of streams or about native villages. By 
March the white-crested kalij usually is working its way upwards again, 
though generally leaving a scattering of year-round residents behind. 
Daily movement patterns have not been well worked out. 
Shortly after dawn and again after 4 P.M. birds are likely to be seen 
or heard in the vicinity of roads or trails, or feeding in overgrown 
fields. A little later, where not overhunted, the birds may travel, 
usually on foot, in loose groups of 2 to 10, feeding and moving about 
in the direction of water to which they come with considerable regularity 
Their thirst satisfied, they work gradually uphill fanning out for 
feeding then resting through the heat of the day, usually on the ground. 
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