The 'brown' southern African francolins - some ID help.

We have a lovely variety of francolins in southern Africa, and they can sometimes be tricky to ID.

The species are Greywing Francolin (Scleroptila afra), Redwing Francolin (S. levaillantii), Shelley's Francolin (S. shelleyi), Orange River Francolin (S. gutturalis), and to a lesser extent, Crested Francolin (Dendroperdix sephaena) and Coqui Francolin female (Peliperdix coqui).

I have tried to use neck patterns here because this is the bit that, fleetingly, sticks out from the grass as the little chaps hurry away out of sight.


All images from iNaturalist, and copyright remains with the photographers.
Redwing: @ammartin
Greywing: @michael_mcsweeney
Orange R: @nikborrow and @tapaculo99
Shelley's: @markuslilje
Crested: @michael_mcsweeney
Coqui: @richardgill

KEY TO THE BROWN FRANCOLINS

1a. Neck pattern black speckles bordered by ochre on nape and throat...Redwing
1b. Neck pattern speckly rufous or chestnut with no black necklaces...Crested
1c. Neck pattern ochre, rufous or whitish bordered by black speckles or necklaces on both nape and throat...2

2a. Bill all black, neck pattern ochre or rufous bordered by black speckles on both sides...Greywing
2b. Bill yellow at base, necklaces more definite black...3

3a. Small bird with very short bill that is mostly yellow. Nape necklace does not extend to throat...Coqui female
3b. Medium sized birds with nape necklace extending to throat, bill large and hooked...4

4a. Centre of belly barred black on white, distribution eastern...Shelley's
4b. Centre of belly faintly barred or spotted brownish on white, or flecked rufous on buff, never black barred, distribution western...Orange River

Current distribution records on iNat for Shelley's (blue) and Orange River (orange)

Hope this helps :-)
If you have any suggestions for improving this, please let me know!

Posted on December 16, 2019 09:30 AM by karoopixie karoopixie

Comments

So useful - thanks! :)

Posted by richardgill about 4 years ago

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