Bornean crested fireback Kalimantan

Lophura ignita ignita, Male: Face wattles cobalt blue, of the same shape as those of the Silver Pheasant, that is to say with one large lobe forming a half circle above the eye, and one lower lobe developed forward; head, crest, neck, breast, mantle, rump, tail-coverts and thighs dark purplish blue; wing-coverts dark blue with iridescent ultramarine fringes; primaries and secondaries bluish black; feathers of lower back with a blue-black base hidden by broad fringes of shining coppery maroon; rump and upper tail coverts with large metallic blue fringes; three central pairs of rectrices cinnamon-buff, the remaining five pairs bluish black; there is much individual variation, the third pair sometimes black on its inner web, the fourth sometimes with some buff on the outer web; lower breast and sides of body shining coppery chestnut; abdomen black. Iris red; bill horny white; legs greyish white to flesh colour.
Length: 650-670 mm; wing: 270-280 mm; tail: 240-260 mm; culmen: 37 mm; tarsus: 110-120 mm.
Males assue the adult plumage the first autumn but do not breed till the second year.
Female: Head, crest and upper parts rufous chestnut, the wings and tail coverts finely vermiculated with black; rectrices black, finely vermiculated with dark chestnut edges; chin and throat white; feathers of breast, sides and thighs chestnut to blackish brown with white borders producing a scaly effect; abdomen white. Soft parts as in the male, but base of the bill brown; no spur in normal birds; legs sometimes tinged with brown.
Length: 560-570 mm; wing: 234-254 mm; tail: 156-177 mm; culmen: 33 mm; tarsus: 76 mm.
Immature: Dark brown and somewhat like the female, the wing-coverts with large black spots, the male darker. At four months like the adults, but duller.
Downy Chicks: Crown and nape rufous; upper parts blackish brown, with buff bars on the wings and narrow whitish latero-dorsal bands; face pale rufous, a black line from eye to ear coverts; under parts buffy white, the breast and flanks washed with rufous.
Lophura ignita nobilis, Male & Female: Exactly like ignita, but larger. Male - wing: 280-2293 mm; tail: 254-285 mm; Female - wing: 252 mm; tail: 180-166 mm.
Lophura ignita rufa, Male: Resembles ignita, but heavier in shape, with a larger tail, the central rectrices white instead of cinnamon; whole breast and sides of body dark blue, the feathers of the latter with white shaft-stripes of variable width; the coppery patch on the back redder, less maroon. The face wattles are different in shape, consisting of four lobes regularly disposed around the eyes, much as in Swinhoe's Pheasant, rather lighter blue than in ignita, with a red spot on the border of the lower lobe. The legs are crismon instead of whitish.
The male assumes the adult plumage the first year, but may keep for some time a rufous tinge on the shaft-streaks of the flanks.
Length: 650-700 mm; wing: 270-300 mm; tail: 265-295 mm; culmen: 37 mm; tarsus: 100-110 mm.
Female: Similar to ignita, but easily distinguished by its red legs and its entirely chestnut tail. Also much bigger and less high on the legs.
Immature: Much like those of ignita. Young males have the middle tail feathers chestnut with narrow black bars and rufous shaft-stripes on the flanks.
Downy Chicks: Very like ignita, but a little darker.
Lophura ignita macartneyi, Male: Inermediate between ignita and rufa, and variable. In the phase to which the type belongs, the breast is dark blue, the sides have rufous patches and the central tail feathers are buff; in a few specimens the breast and sides are plain rufous and such birds can only be distinguished from ignita by their heavier shape and the generally paler, less chestnut, rufous parts of the plumage. Another phase, delacouri, has plain rufous sides but the central rectrices are mostly white. In the sumatrana phase, which is the most frequently found, the sides are black marked with rufous, most of the feathers being black at the base and rufous near the tip with a glossy blue-black border; the rufous markings vary much in size and tone and they are narrower near the abdomen; sometimes the black border is lacking, and the breast can be solid dark blue, rufous or mixed; central rectrices white, sometimes washed with pale buff, mostly near the base, more or less marked with black on the outer web. All those colour phases appear to co-exist in the same localities. In a few other cases the rufous markings of the sides are replaced partly or completely by white ones (albipennis) and it seems that such specimens occur close to the range of rufa and are intermediate. The blue face wattles are like those of ignita, with two large lobes, not four as in rufa, and they have no red spots; legs whitish grey as in ignita, not crimson as in rufa.
Wing: 270-300 mm.
Female: Like rufa but brighter chestnut; tail very bright chestnut-bay; dark vermiculations faint on the wings and absent on head, neck, mantle and tail. A wild female from Monaradoea, Palembang, mentioned by Kloss, shows these characteristics well. There is no doubt a great deal of variation in the females.