The ferruginous partridge (''Caloperdix oculeus'') is a species of bird 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 belongs to the

monotypical 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 "unis ...

genus ''Caloperdix''. It is found in Indonesia, Malaysia,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, and Thailand.

Taxonomy

The ferruginous partridge was originally described by

Coenraad Jacob Temminck Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dut ...

in 1815, who described it as ''Perdix oculea''. The specific name ''oculea'' is a reference to the Latin ''oculus'' for eyes, meaning that it was full of eyes or dotted with coloured spots. The species was moved to the monotypic genus ''Caloperdix'' in 1861 by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...

. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek ''kalos'' for beautiful and ''perdikos'' for partridge.Jobling, J. A. (2018)
Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology
In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2018). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from www.hbw.com). The species has three described subspecies: *''C. o. oculeus'' Temminck, 1815 *''C. o. ocellatus'' Raffles, 1822 *''C. o. borneensis'' Ogilvie-Grant, 1892

Distribution and habitat

The ferruginous partridge is found in a variety of habitats, including tropical dry forest and tropical moist lowland forest, secondary scrub and secondary bamboo growth. It is found from sea-level to .McGowan, P.J.K. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019)
Ferruginous Partridge (''Caloperdix oculeus'')
In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53466 on 23 February 2019). The ferruginous partridge ranges from southern Myanmar through the Kra Isthmus into the Malay Peninsula, as well as Borneo and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Description

The ferruginous partridge measures from in length and weighs between . The

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

is distinctive, having a rufous head, breast and belly and black scaled with white upper back and sides of breast and flanks. The wings are brown with black spots, and the rest of the back is black scaled with rufous. The sexes are similar except the male has two spurs and the female just one.

Behaviour

The ferruginous partridge forages in small pairs or alone for seeds, fruits, grasses and insects. Very little is known about its breeding behaviour; the clutch size is 8-10 pure white eggs laid in a domed nest.

Status

The ferruginous partridge is believed to be declining across its range due to habitat loss, and has therefore been assessed as near threatened with extinction.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q431885 ferruginous partridge ferruginous partridge Birds of Malesia ferruginous partridge Taxonomy articles created by Polbot