Golden pheasant crest sub feather Natural pheasant tail fibers (topping)
Thin head cement and 5-minute epoxy (head)
How to tie it
Build the gut eye: wrap a base along the tapered portion of the blind eye hook, bend a silkworm gut loop around a tapered bodkin, bind it in from underneath with edge-to-edge wraps, cement it, and razor the ends on a taper once dry so the body sits over a smooth transition.
Switch to Uni-Nylon 70 denier and lay the tag: fine oval gold tied in by its stripped core so the tinsel starts even with the barb, five edge-to-edge turns, then stripped back to the core. Add small flat embossed gold and purple silk floss for the front of the tag, wrap the floss to the point, fold it over and trim, then rib the tag with three angled turns of the flat gold.
Tie in a golden pheasant crest just past the bend for the tail. Switch to Uni 17/0 Trico and stack three veils centred on top: Indian crow, blue chatterer with the tips even with the top of the black section of the Indian crow, and a small jungle cock tip set about halfway up the chatterer. Finish with a five-turn ostrich herl butt.
Change to Nano Silk 12/0 and mount the three-part rib: small embossed gold, dark red silk floss, and a large flat embossed gold tinsel with a notch cut into it, the thin part of the notch sitting at the base of the herl and the notch facing down. Keep all three parallel and never crossing as you wrap forward.
Run purple silk floss back to the herl, then build a thread base over roughly the first third of the body forward from the butt, burnish it and wrap the floss over that section only, folding the tag over to keep the taper gradual.
Tie in a long folded black heron hackle by the tip along the threaded area, leaving a gap in front of the silk body, then pin it back with lead wire. Spin a split-thread loop of purple Ice Dub, brush it out and wrap it from the end of the silk body forward, behind and then in front of the hackle.
Rib the large embossed gold over the whole body, two turns on the silk and three on the dubbing, then red silk floss along its edge, then fine embossed gold tight to the floss. Palmer the heron along the fine gold and finish it as a collar. Add a second folded heron collar, then a folded large blue schlappen, then a folded orange-dyed silver pheasant collar, dividing those fibres from the top and sweeping them down. Switch to Nano Silk 24/0. Set two argus pheasant wing sections flat together with the tips even with the bend, secure with a soft loop and spread them into the low Dee-wing set. Add jungle cock below each wing, a wood duck feather on top of each wing, a single large jungle cock on top slightly longer than the wood duck, and a golden pheasant crest sub feather over that. Razor the butts on a taper, finish the head in black, cement and epoxy.