Eared pheasants move across deep snow by whirring their wings and fluttering close to the ground, and supporting their weight on their rectrices.

Eared pheasant flight was often described as poor by the hunter collectors of the 18th century, who used dogs to flush the birds from the ground for shooting.

Eared pheasants do not waste their energy on flying when quadrupeds prey on them because they have adapted many defensive escape behaviors that do not require flight.

When hard-pressed during the most severe winter storms, which may blow for weeks at a time, eared pheasants may subsist upon pine pitch and deer, rabbit, and yak dung.

The Szechuan white eared pheasant will not mate until it is two years old, then it will go into a heated breeding frenzy around the end of April.

Human development and encroaching on its habitat in agricultural China has reduced the range of the species, and hunting of these pheasants for food has threatened their numbers severely.