Newsletter / Blog
2012-06-02 Edwards Pheasant on the edge of extinction.
It has not been
seen in its small home range in central Vietnam since around 2000.
Conservationists searched intensively in 2011 but found none. Leading
scientists, conservationists and aviculturalists from Europe and Southeast Asia
met at Walsrode in Germany
last week to formulate a rescue plan.
Edwards Pheasant
The Edwards Pheasant - Lophura edwardsi - is endemic
to Vietnam.
Known historically from at least eight localities in Quang Tri and Thua Thien
provinces, it was described as locally fairly common. The first recent records
were of birds trapped by local hunters in 1996, in Phong Dien and Dakrong
proposed nature reserves. Since then there have been records from western Quang
Ninh district, Quang Binh province and in Loc Dien commune. It appears to have
undergone a sharp decline in numbers and range since then.
Description
The male is a stunning,
glossy, blue-black pheasant with metallic-green fringes to the upper wing. It
has short, shaggy white crest, red facial skin and legs. The female is a uniform
cold greyish-brown with warmer tinged wings and blackish tail with brown
central feathers. Juvenile resemble the female.
Call
The alarm call is
a puk!-puk!-puk!.
Food
In captivity the food
consists of game bird pellets, seeds, greens and live food.
Breeding
Mating and
nesting behaviour have not been observed in the wild, only in captivity. Here,
males display to females by erecting their crest, fluffing up the feathers on
their back and rapidly whirring their wings. Eggs tend to be laid between March
and May. A clutches of between four to seven eggs are incubated for between 21
to 22 days.
Conservation Status – Critically Endangered.
It has recently
been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The population
in 1994 was believed to number between 250 and 999 birds in the wild having
suffered from deforestation, hunting and the use of defoliants during the Vietnam
War. However, conservationists searched intensively in 2011 but found none. Its
historical range is now almost completely denuded of primary forest through a
combination of herbicide spraying during the Vietnam War, logging and clearance
for agriculture. The last forest areas known to support the species are subject
to continuing degradation by wood-cutters.
Birdwatching
Ask Aves Birding Tours to create a tour for
you to attempt to find this bird in the wild.
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