The orange-necked partridge (''Arborophila davidi'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hunti ...

. It is found in eastern

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

and southern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. Its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, and

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s. It was described in 1927 and rediscovered in 1991. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) has assessed it as a near-threatened species.

Taxonomy

This species was described by

Jean Théodore Delacour Jean Théodore Delacour (26 September 1890 – 5 November 1985) was a French ornithologist and aviculturist. He later became American. He was renowned for not only discovering but also rearing some of the rarest birds in the world. He establish ...

in 1927. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is derived from André David-Beaulieu, a French colonial administrator who collected the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

earlier in 1927. There are no subspecies.

Description

The orange-necked partridge is about long and weighs about . The forehead and crown are dusky, and the nape is mottled brown. A black band extends from the beak to the sides of the neck, and a whitish band extends from the eye to the neck-sides, becoming orange. There is also a black breast-band. The chin is pale buff, and the throat is rusty-orange. The breast is olive-brown, and the belly is greyish and whitish. The flanks have black and white scallops. The back and rump are olive-brown, with dark brown bars. The

wing covert A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

s have black and grey bands. The eyes are brown, the beak is black, and the legs are pinkish.

Distribution and habitat

The orange-necked partridge is found in southern Vietnam and a small area in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. It lives in forest in hills at elevations of , preferring bamboos. It also occurs in some disturbed habitats, including scrubs, bamboos and logged plantations. In Vietnam, it occurs in several national parks and state forest enterprises. All of the individuals recorded in a 2005 survey lived less than from water.

Behaviour

Little is known about this partridge's behaviour. The territorial calls are a repeated, accelerating ', becoming ' at higher pitches, and also a series of fast ' notes. In duets, the other bird responds with '. The alarm call is a ' or '.

Status

After its discovery in 1927, the orange-necked partridge was "lost" until its 1991 rediscovery in

Cát Tiên National Park Cát Tiên National Park ( vi, Vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên) is a national park located in the south of Vietnam, belonging to the area of 3 provinces Đồng Nai province, Đồng Nai, Bình Phước province, Bình Phước and Lâm Đồ ...

. Subsequent surveys have found it in several sites in Vietnam, possibly because of improved survey techniques. It was first recorded in Cambodia in 2002, using a

camera trap A camera trap is a camera that is automatically triggered by a change in some activity in its vicinity, like presence of an animal or a human being. It is typically equipped with a motion sensor – usually a passive infrared (PIR) sensor ...

, and later records in Cambodia have all been in the same site. The IUCN assessed it as a critically endangered species, downlisting to endangered in 2000 and to

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

in 2009. The population is estimated to be nearly 10,000. It is threatened by logging, forest clearance and hunting. The population is declining, but the decline is probably not rapid because the bird seems to tolerate some

forest degradation Forest degradation is a process in which the biological wealth of a forest area is permanently diminished by some factor or by a combination of factors. "This does not involve a reduction of the forest area, but rather a quality decrease in its c ...

, so it is assessed as near threatened even though its population and range are both small. In 2000, the orange-necked partridge appeared on a national stamp of Vietnam.

References

External links

BirdLife Species FactsheetOriental Bird Images: ''Orange-necked Partridge''
Selected images {{Taxonbar, from=Q2569760 orange-necked partridge Birds of Cambodia Birds of Vietnam orange-necked partridge orange-necked partridge Taxonomy articles created by Polbot