Black Francolin - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies F. f. asiae : male
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, 10 June 2016

Francolinus francolinus

Identification

Nominate subspecies : female
Photo © by lior kislev
Btecha North Israel, 17 November 2008

31–36 cm (12-14 in)
Male

• Mainly black
• White spotting on back and flanks
• Chestnut neck collar
• White cheek patches
• Brown wings
• Red legs
  

The amount white spotting on the flanks varies considerably

Female

• Mainly brown
• Chestnut hind neck
• The depth of colour of the females varies

Distribution

Kashmir, Cyprus, south-eastern Turkey, Iran, southwest Turkmenistan, northeast India, and south-western Nepal.

Introduced to Hawaii

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Sub-adult male, subspecies asiae
Photo © by Tribhuz
Suklaphanta National Park, Nepal, 31 December 2017

Subspecies F. f. asiae : female
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Dist. Gurgaon, Haryana, India, 18 January 2018

There are 6 subspecies^[1]:

• F. f. francolinus:

• Cyprus and Asia Minor to Iraq and Iran

• F. f. arabistanicus:

• Southern Iraq and western Iran

• F. f. bogdanovi:

• Southern Iran and Afghanistan to southern Pakistan

• F. f. henrici:

• Southern Pakistan to western India

• F. f. asiae:

• Northern India

• F. f. melanonotus:

• Eastern India to Sikkim and Bangladesh

Habitat

Scrubby habitats with plenty of low cover. Grassland and other cultivated areas. Also wetlands.

Behaviour

Breeding

They nest in a bare ground scrape. The clutch consists of 8-18 pale greenish-brown eggs with white spots.

Diet

The diet consists of a variety of seeds from grass, weeds and cereal crops; also leaves, shoots, tubers berries and fruit. They also eat many insects and their larvae.

Vocalisation

Subspecies F. f. henrici : male
Photo © by Jugal Tiwari
Kutch, Gujarat, India, 8 September 2009

Recording © by Alok Tewari
(Jim Corbett NP, India, May-2016
Call

In Culture

State bird of Haryana (India).

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Mar 2018)
3. Wikipedia
4. Birdforum Member observations
5. Birdforum members description of their courtship

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Black Francolin. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black_Francolin

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