The imperial pheasant (''Lophura'' × ''imperialis'') is a

gallopheasant The gallopheasants (genus ''Lophura'') are pheasants of the family Phasianidae. The genus comprises 11 species and several subspecies. Several species in this genus are known as firebacks, including crestless and crested firebacks, as well as ...

from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

. Long thought to be an enigmatic and elusive species, it is actually a cross of Edwards's pheasant and the

silver pheasant The silver pheasant (''Lophura nycthemera'') is a species of pheasant found in forests, mainly in mountains, of mainland Southeast Asia and eastern and southern China, with an introduced population on Victoria Island in Nahuel Huapi Lake, Neu ...

(''L. nycthemera'' subsp''. annamensis''), a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

. The imperial pheasant is a dark blue, medium-sized, up to 75 cm long pheasant with bare red facial skin, blue crest, crimson legs and glossy plumage. The female is brown with erectile short feather crest, blackish tail and primaries. This pheasant is found in the forests of

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 ...

and Laos. Its appearance resembles another of Vietnam's enigmatic birds, the

Vietnamese pheasant The Vietnamese pheasant, or Vietnam fireback, was formerly considered a species of gallopheasant, ''Lophura hatinhensis'', but is now considered a variant of Edward's pheasant. Discovered in 1964, it is endemic to central Vietnam. Its range con ...

, but it is larger in size, has a longer tail, and an all dark blue crest and tail feathers. The latter species has a white crest and central tail feathers. Previously known only from a pair taken alive to Europe by Jean Théodore Delacour in 1923, this species was rediscovered in 1990, when an immature male was trapped by a

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...

collector. Another immature male was caught in February 2000. This rare bird was determined not to be a true species, but a naturally occurring

between the Edwards's pheasant and the subspecies ''annamensis'' of the

(''L. nycthemera'').A. Hennache, P. Rasmussen, V. Lucchini, S. Rimondi, E. Randi. 'Hybrid origin of the imperial pheasant Lophura imperialis (Delacour and Jabouille, 1924) demonstrated by morphology, hybrid experiments, and DNA analyses'. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 80, Number 4, December 2003, pp. 573-600. .

References

External links

Red Data Book
{{Taxonbar, from=Q875498 imperial pheasant Birds of Laos Birds of Vietnam imperial pheasant imperial pheasant Bird hybrids