Harwood's spurfowl (''Pternistis Harwoodi''), also known as Harwood's Francolin, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Phasianidae. It is a grey-brown bird with red bill and tail, and red bare skin around the eyes. Both sexes have similar coloring, although the female is paler in color with a more extensive buff belly. This spurfowl is endemic to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, having a range restricted to the

Ethiopian highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

on either side of the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to ...

River between Lake Tana and its confluence with the

Jamma River The Jamma River (Amharic: ጃማ) is a river in central Ethiopia and a tributary to the Abay (or Blue Nile). It drains parts of the Semien Shewa Zones of the Amhara and Oromia Regions. The Upper Jamma flows through steep, deep canyons cut firs ...

, as well as its tributaries between these points. Originally thought to inhabit '' Typha'' beds growing along small, shallow watercourses and acacia thickets, studies in 1996 found Harwood's spurfowl in a site with neither of these. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

as population pressures force locals into the marginal scrublands favored by the bird as its habitat. Harwood's spurfowl is heavily hunted for food and is sometimes also caught for sale at local markets; its eggs are also a food source.

Taxonomy

Harwood's spurfowl was described in 1899 by the English ornithologists

Herbert Weld Blundell Herbert Joseph Weld Blundell (1852 – 5 February 1935) was an English traveller in Africa, archaeologist, philanthropist and yachtsman. He shortened his surname from Weld Blundell to Weld, in 1924. Life to 1922 He was educated at Stonyhurst C ...

and

Simon Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat Major-General Simon Joseph Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat and 3rd Baron Lovat, (25 November 1871 – 18 February 1933), was a leading Roman Catholic aristocrat, landowner, forester, soldier, politician and the 23rd Chief of Clan Fraser. While l ...

from a specimen that they had collected in the Aheafeg area of Ethiopia. They coined the binomial name ''Francolinus harwoodi''. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the taxidermist and naturalist Leonard Harwood (fl. 1899). 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. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that Harwood's spurfowl is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

Clapperton's spurfowl Clapperton's spurfowl (''Pternistis clappertoni'') is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda. Taxonomy Clappert ...

. Harwood's spurfowl is considered to be

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.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.Xeno-canto: audio recordings of Harwood's spurfowl

Harwood's spurfowl Harwood's spurfowl (''Pternistis Harwoodi''), also known as Harwood's Francolin, is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is a grey-brown bird with red bill and tail, and red bare skin around the eyes. Both sexes have similar coloring, ...

Endemic birds of Ethiopia Fauna of the Ethiopian Highlands

Vulnerable animals Vulnerable biota of Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Galliformes-stub