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The beauty of Vietnam’s pheasants

Monday, 23/04/2012, 08:10 GMT+7

VietNamNet Bridge – There are around 22 species of pheasants in Vietnam. VietNamNet introduces some pictures of species of pheasants in Vietnam.








Silver pheasant (Lophura nycthemera): is a species of pheasant found in forests, mainly in mountains,
of mainland Southeast Asia. The male is black and white, while the female is mainly brown.
Both sexes have a bare red face and red legs. It is common in aviculture, and overall also
remains common in the wild, but some of its subspecies (notably whiteheadi from Hainan,
engelbachi from southern Laos, and annamensis from southern Vietnam) are rare and threatened.







The Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical member of the Pheasant family. It is thought
to be ancestral to the domestic chicken. The Red Junglefowl was first domesticated at least
several thousand years ago in Asia, and the domestic form is kept globally as a very productive
 food source of both meat and eggs. Some breeds have been specifically developed to produce these.







The Siamese Fireback, Lophura diardi also known as Diard's Fireback--is a medium-sized,
approximately 80 cm long pheasant. The male has a grey plumage with an extensive red facial
skin, crimson legs and feet, ornamental black crest feathers, reddish brown iris and long curved
 blackish tail. The female is a brown bird with blackish wing and tail feathers.

The Siamese Fireback is distributed to the lowland and evergreen forests of Cambodia, Laos,
 Thailand and Vietnam. This species is also designated as the national bird of Thailand.
The female usually lays between four to eight rosy eggs.

The scientific name commemorates the French naturalist Pierre-Médard Diard.
Due to habitat loss and over-hunting in some areas, the Siamese Fireback was evaluated
as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, however, it is now Least Concern, because the
 populations declines were probably over estimated.






The Temminck's Tragopan. Tragopan temminckii is a medium-sized, approximately 64cm long
 pheasant in the genus Tragopan. The male is a stocky red-and-orange bird with white-spotted
 plumage, black bill and pink legs. It has a bare blue facial skin, inflatable dark-blue lappet
and horns. The female is a white-spotted brown bird with blue circular eye skin.

Its appearance resembles the Satyr Tragopan, but unlike the latter species it has all red upper
 body plumage and orange collar. The diet consists mainly of berries, grass and plants.

The Temminck's Tragopan is distributed in forests of northern South Asia, from northeast India,
 northwest Vietnam, Tibet and northern provinces of China.

Widespread and a common species throughout its large habitat range, the Temminck's
Tragopan is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.










The Vietnamese Pheasant, or Vietnam Fireback, (Lophura hatinhensis) is a species of
gallopheasant. Discovered in 1964, it is endemic to central Vietnam. Its range concentrates
 around Ke Go Nature Reserve in Ha Tinh Province.






Edwards's Pheasant, Lophura edwardsi, is a bird of the pheasant family Phasianidae and is endemic
to the rainforests of Vietnam. It is named after the French ornithologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards
and first described to science in 1896.

The bird's length is 58–65 centimeters (23–26 in) and has red legs and facial skin. The male
is mainly blue-black with a crest, and the female is a drab brown bird. Edwards′s Pheasant
is very identical to the similarly-sized Vietnamese Pheasant, which it overlaps with throughout
its range. The male bird however lacks the white tail feathers of that species. The alarm call is a puk!-puk!-puk!.

There are two varieties: the nominate form L. e. edwardsi has a white crest and upper tail,
whereas the northern form L. e. hatinhensis is found with a variable number of white rectrices.

Both forms of Edwards's Pheasant are currently listed as endangered species, having suffered
 from deforestation, hunting and the use of defoliants during the Vietnam War. The population
 is currently believed to number between 250 and 999 birds in the wild, mostly of the
nominate form, but it is doing well in captivity, where it is the subject of ex-situ conservation.
There have been no confirmed sightings since 2000, and in 2010 the World Pheasant Association (WPA)
received funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund to survey forests in the central
Vietnam provinces of Quang Binh and Quang Tri. If hunting and habitat loss continues,
it may warrant uplisting it to Critically Endangered in the very course future.

 


Written : VietNamNet