The handsome spurfowl (''Pternistis nobilis'') is a species of bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is a large, up to 35 cm long,

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

forest bird with a dark reddish brown plumage, grey head, red

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and legs, brown

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

, bare red orbital skin and rufous grey below. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than male. The young has duller plumage. The handsome spurfowl is distributed in mountain forests of eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, southwest

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

and borders between Burundi and Rwanda. It is a shy and elusive bird, more often heard than seen. The diet consists mainly of seeds.

Taxonomy

The handsome spurfowl was described in 1908 by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow from a specimen collected on

Mount Sabyinyo Mount Sabyinyo ("Sabyinyo" is derived from the Kinyarwanda word "Iryinyo", meaning "tooth"; also "Sabyinyo, Sabyinio") is an extinct volcano in eastern Africa in the Virunga Mountains. Mount Sabyinyo is the oldest volcano of the range. It is nort ...

in the Virunga Mountains. Mount Sabyinyo is in Rwanda, on the border with the Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reichenow coined the binomial name ''Francolinus nobilis''. The species is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Pternistis ''Pternistis'' is a genus of galliform birds formerly classified in the spurfowl group of the Perdicinae, partridge subfamily of the Phasianidae, pheasant family. They are described as "partridge-francolins" in literature establishing their phy ...

'' that was introduced by the German naturalist

Johann Georg Wagler Johann Georg Wagler (28 March 1800 – 23 August 1832) was a German herpetologist and ornithologist. Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and gave lectures in zoology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich after it was moved ...

in 1832. The specific epithet ''nobilis'' is Latin for "noble", "famous" or "renowned". The handsome spurfowl is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

: no subspecies are recognised.

Status and Conservation

Although locally common across much of its range, and evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Recent surveys for the species in prime habitat in southwestern Uganda detected its presence at only 1 in 10 survey points. The research concluded that a reanalysis of the status of the handsome francolin could be justified in the light of its apparent strong preference for montane

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

forest, which is a rare and patchy habitat.

References

External links

BirdLife Species FactsheetXeno-canto: audio recordings of the handsome spurfowl
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27074575 Pternistis Birds of Central Africa Birds described in 1908