Editing Common pheasant (section)

===European native===
Southern Caucasian pheasants (''P.&nbsp;c.&nbsp;colchicus'') were common in Greece during the classical period and it is a widespread myth that the Greeks took pheasants to the [[Balkans]] when they colonised Colchis in the [[Caucasus]]. This colonization happened during the 6th century BC, but pheasant archaeological remains in the Balkans are much older dating to 6th millennium BC. This fact indicates that probably pheasants reached the area naturally.<ref>Fet, V. & A. Popov 2007: Biogeography and Ecology of Bulgaria. Springer.</ref><ref>Sokos, C. & P. Birtsas 2014: The last indigenous black-necked pheasant population of Europe. G@lliformed 8: 13–22.</ref> Additionally it seems that they had a continuous range in Turkey from the Sea of Marmara on the edge of the Balkans, across the northern shore of the country till Caucasus.<ref>Gürler, A. T., Bölükbaş, C. S., Pekmezci, G. Z., Umur, S. & M.  Açıcı1 2012: Samsun’da Sülünlerde (''Phasianus colchicus'') Nekropsi ve Dışkı Bakısında Saptanan Helmintler. Turkiye Parazitol Derg 36: 222–227.</ref> The last remnants of the Balkan population survive in the Kotza-Orman riparian forest of Nestos, in [[Greece]] with an estimated population of 100–200 adult birds.<ref>{{cite book
| editor-last1 = Λεγάκις | editor-first1 = Αναστάσιος | editor-last2 = Μαραγκού | editor-first2 = Παναγιώτα
| date = 2009
| title = Το Κόκκινο Βιβλίο των Απειλούμενων Ζώων της Ελλάδας
| trans-title = The Red Book of endangered animals of Greece
| isbn = 978-960-85298-8-5
| lang = el
| author-last = Χανδρινός | author-first = Γιώργος
| contribution = Φασιανός
| trans-contribution = Black-necked Pheasant
| location = Αθήνα (Athens)
| publisher = Ελληνική Ζωολογική Εταιρεία (Hellenic Zoological Society)
| page = 243
| url = http://dipe.ker.sch.gr/kainotomes/To_Kokkino_biblio.pdf
}} (summary for each species in English)</ref> In [[Bulgaria]] they were lost in the 1970s because they hybridised with introduced eastern subspecies.<ref>Braasch, T., Pes, T., Michel, S. & H. Jacken 2011: The subspecies of the common pheasant ''Phasianus colchicus'' in the wild and captivity. International Journal of Galliformes Conservation 2: 6–13.</ref>

Besides the Balkans the species lives in Europe in the area north of Caucasus where the local subspecies ''P.c.septentrionalis'' survives pure around the lower reaches of the Samur River. Reintroduction efforts in the rest of the north Caucasian range may include hybrid birds.<ref>Kayvanfar, N., Aliabadian, M., Niu, X., Zhang, Z. & Y. Liu 2017: Phylogeography of the Common Pheasant ''Phasianus colchicus''. Ibis 159: 430–442.</ref>