Editing Edwards's pheasant (section)

{{short description|Species of bird}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Edwards's pheasant
| status = PEW
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 20 January 2025">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2024 |title=''Lophura edwardsi'' |volume=2024 |page=e.T45354985A249120158 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T45354985A249120158.en |access-date=20 January 2025}}</ref>
| status2 = CITES_A1 
 | status2_system = CITES 
 | status2_ref = <ref>{{Cite web|title=Appendices {{!}} CITES|url=https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php|access-date=2022-01-14|website=cites.org}}</ref>
| image = Male_edwards'_pheasant.JPG
| image_caption = Male
| image2 = Lophura edwardsi.JPG
| image2_caption = Female, [[Bojnice Zoo|Zoo]] [[Bojnice]], [[Slovakia]]
| genus = Lophura
| species = edwardsi
| authority = ([[Émile Oustalet|Oustalet]], 1896)
}}
[[File:Lophura edwardsi MHNT.jpg|thumb|'' Lophura edwardsi'' – [[MHNT]]]]
'''Edwards's pheasant''' ('''''Lophura edwardsi''''') is a [[bird]] of the pheasant family [[Phasianidae]] and is [[Endemic (ecology)|endemic]] to the [[seasonal tropical forest]]s of central [[Vietnam]]. It is named after the French ornithologist [[Alphonse Milne-Edwards]] and first described to science in 1896.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beolens|first=Bo|title=Whose Bird?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate|year=2004|publisher=Whose Bird?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate|isbn=978-0-300-10359-5|author2=Michael Watkins|page=116}}</ref> The bird's length is {{convert|58|–|65|cm}}<ref name=":0">Birdlife International</ref> and has red legs and facial skin. The male is mainly blue-black with a crest, and the female is a drab brown bird. 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, usually called [[Vietnamese pheasant]], is found with a variable number of white rectrices. This difference in the two forms may be due to inbreeding of a restricted, fragmented population there, and has also been seen in captive, inbred ''L. edwardsi''.

In 2012 the nominate form of Edwards's pheasant have been uplisted to [[Critically Endangered]] by [[BirdLife International]], having suffered from [[deforestation]], hunting and the use of [[defoliant]]s during the [[Vietnam War]]. The population is currently believed to number between 50 and 249 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|''ex situ'' conservation]]. There have been no confirmed sightings of a living individual in the wild 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 [[Quảng Bình Province|Quảng Bình]] and [[Quảng Trị Province|Quảng Trị]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Grainger|first=Matthew|title=One of our pheasant's is missing|date=6 September 2011 |url=http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2876|publisher=Birdguides|access-date=1 November 2011}}</ref> It is considered possibly extinct in the wild as a result.<ref name="iucn status 20 January 2025"/>