Edward’s Pheasant

     The Edward’s Pheasant is a bird in the Pheasant family endemic to the rainforests of Vietnam. It got named after the French ornithologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards, and was first described to science in 1896. The Edward’s pheasant was actually thought to be extinct in the wild until its remarkable rediscovery in 1996.

     Edward’s pheasant males have a stunning glossy-black plumage with shiny blue lustre, and metallic-green fringes to the upper wings. They have also a short, craggy white crest and conspicuous red legs and facial skin. Edward’s pheasant females lack the cocks’ crest and are much duller in appearance. They are uniformly greyish-brown in color, with warmer tinged wings and a blackish tail.

     The Edwards’s pheasant is also very similar to the Vietnamese Pheasant and is believed by some scientists to be one of its subspecies. However, Vietnamese pheasants mainly differ in having four white central tail feathers instead of blue, and slightly longer white crests. The females of the two species are nearly identical, though perhaps the Vietnamese hen is a little darker.

     Edward’s pheasants breed only after they are two years old. And the eggs tend to be laid between March and May. The  Edward’s hen typically lays a clutch of four to seven eggs and incubates them for 21 to 22 days.