Siamese Fireback

The male Siamese fireback is about 80 cm long, with grey upperparts, a black crest, extensive red facial skin, crimson legs and a long dark-green tail; bare-shafted feathers curve from the rump. The roughly 60 cm female is rufous-brown with pale barring across darker wings and tail and red skin around the eye. These differences make adults distinctive among Vietnamese pheasants (Handbook of the Birds of the World, as summarised by BirdForum).

It occupies evergreen, semi-evergreen and bamboo forest, secondary growth and scrub, usually in plains and foothills below 800 m, though records reach about 1,150 m. Small presumed family parties forage on the ground and along tracks for fallen fruit, berries, insects, worms and small land crabs. A recorded nest lay in a hollow at a tree base, and clutches contain three to eight pale rosy-buff eggs. Vietnamese camera-trap work includes Lo Go–Xa Mat National Park (BirdLife species account; BirdForum).