Long-Tail on The Gamecock Codex

Phoenix

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

date: 2026-06-01

The Phoenix is the long-tail fowl of the European show pen — bred from imported Japanese Onagadori stock in the late nineteenth century and developed into a bird of extraordinary tail length, though not (as is often claimed) of true non-moulting tail growth.

Sumatra

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

date: 2026-06-01

The Sumatra is a long-tailed, beetle-black gamefowl of the Indonesian island that gives it its name — a bird of almost pheasant-like carriage, kept today for exhibition and as one of the most striking of the long-crower breeds. It is the Western showman’s nearest approach to the wild Gallus varius of Java, although it is descended in fact from fighting stock of Sumatra rather than from any wild species.

Yokohama

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

date: 2026-06-01

The Yokohama is the European cousin of the Japanese Minohiki (蓑引き, “saddle-drooping”) — a long-tailed gamefowl developed in the late nineteenth century by German fanciers from imported Japanese stock.

The Long Tail

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The longest tail ever reliably recorded in a living bird belongs to a chicken. The bird was an Onagadori — a long-tail fowl of the Tosa province of Shikoku, Japan — and its tail measured, in 1972, an extraordinary 10.3 metres. The bird was over eight years old at the time of measurement; its tail had been growing, almost continuously, for the bird’s entire adult life.