Red-necked spurfowl

The red-necked spurfowl was described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller and given the binomial name Tetrao afer.[2] The type locality was later designated as Benguela in western Angola.[3][4] The specific epithet afer is the Latin word for "African".[5] The species is now placed in the genus Pternistis that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832.[6][7] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that the red-necked spurfowl is sister to the grey-breasted spurfowl.[8]

Although many subspecies have been described only four are now recognised:[7]

• P. a. cranchii (Leach, 1818) — north Gabon and south Congo Republic though south, east Democratic Republic of the Congo to central Angola and west Zambia to central Tanzania, west Kenya and Uganda[lower-alpha 1]
• P. a. afer (Müller, PLS, 1776) — west Angola, northwest Namibia
• P. a. castaneiventer Gunning & Roberts, 1911 — south and east South Africa
• P. a. humboldtii (Peters, W, 1854) — southeast Kenya and north and east Tanzania to Mozambique, northeast Zambia and east Zimbabwe

• 
  P. a. cranchii
  (Leach, 1818)
  in western Kenya
• 
  P. a. afer
  (Statius Müller, 1776)
  in northern Namibia
• 
  P. a. castaneiventer
  Gunning & Roberts, 1911
  in South Africa
• 
  P. a. humboldtii
  (Peters, W, 1854)
  in Mozambique

The red-necked spurfowl is 25–38 cm (9.8–15.0 in) in length, with significant size differences between the subspecies.[9] It is a generally dark spurfowl, brown above and black-streaked grey or white underparts. The bill, bare facial skin, neck and legs are bright red.

The red-necked spurfowl breeds across the central belt of Africa and down the east coast to South Africa.

The red-necked spurfowl is a wary species, keeping to deep cover, although it sometimes feeds in open scrub or cultivation if disturbance is limited and there are thickets nearby. The nest is a bare scrape, and three to nine eggs are laid.

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the red-necked spurfowl is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[1]

• Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse by Madge and McGowan, ISBN 0-7136-3966-0

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pternistis afer.

• Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the red-necked spurfowl
• (Red-necked spurfowl = ) Red-necked francolin - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• IUCN Red List