The Caspian snowcock (''Tetraogallus caspius'') is a

snowcock The snowcocks or snowfowl are a group of bird species in the genus ''Tetraogallus'' of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are ground-nesting birds that breed in the mountain ranges of southern Eurasia from the Caucasus to the Himalayas and we ...

in the pheasant 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 ...

of the order

Galliformes Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...

, gallinaceous birds. It is found in the mountains of eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

and throughout the

Alborz Mountains The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...

of Northern Iran. It breeds at altitudes from on bare stony ground with some alpine scrub. It nests in a bare ground scrape and lays 6–9 greenish

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s, which are incubated only by the female. Its diet consists of

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s and vegetable matter. It forms small flocks when not breeding.

Description

This snowcock ranges from in length, in wingspan and in weight. Its

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 patterned with grey, brown, white and black, but this snowcock looks pale gray from any distance. The breast is pale gray, the throat and a white patch on the side of the neck are white, and the nape is dark gray. In flight, this wary bird shows white flight feathers and undertail. Male and female plumages are similar, but juveniles are slightly smaller and duller in appearance. There are three races differing in plumage saturation, becoming paler from west to east. The Caspian snowcock has a desolate whistling song, vaguely like a

Eurasian curlew The Eurasian curlew or common curlew (''Numenius arquata'') is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred t ...

, '. It differs from

Caucasian snowcock The Caucasian snowcock (''Tetraogallus caucasicus'') is a snowcock in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is native to the Caucasus Mountains, particularly the Western Caucasus, where it breeds at a ...

in that it does not have the drop in pitch at the end of the song shown by that species. The calls include loud cackles and bubbled '.

References

* ''Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse'' by Madge and McGowan,

External links

Caspian snowcock The Caspian snowcock (''Tetraogallus caspius'') is a snowcock in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is found in the mountains of eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and throughout the Alborz Mountai ...

Birds of Western Asia

{{galliformes-stub