African Wildlife and Environment Issue 68

BIRDING

BIRDING

The successful SWAINSON’S SPURFOWL

The Swainson’s Spurfowl is a large, dark brown spurfowl with dark brown-blackish legs, and bare red skin on face and throat. They are overall dark brown, and feathers show black shaft streaks. Crown and back feathers are brown, with fine dark brown spots, and dark streaks on the shaft. The mantle and neck are fringed with greyish feathers, which create a speckled ‘necklace’. The bare throat skin is bright red. Breast feathers are brown with dark brown to black shaft streaks, and these broaden on the belly to form dark sub-terminal spots which are edged in a dull chestnut. Swainson’s Spurfowl Pternistis swainsonii (R199) is called the ‘Bosveldfisant’ in Afrikaans, although it is by no means confined to the bushveld! Sexes are alike, with the male considerably larger than the female. In both sexes the upper mandible is black, with the lower mandible a dull red with black tip. Their eyes are dark brown with red bare skin around the eyes. Legs and feet are black with the male having a large black tarsal spur on each leg. The immature and juvenile birds resemble the adults, but are duller and paler overall, with less bare red skin on face. The throat of these younger birds is covered with white feathers, and their belly is whitish with fine black barring. The bill is light brown with a yellow base, while legs and feet are yellowish brown. They are almost adult size at three months old, but their adult plumage colouration only achieved at about one year of age. They are near-endemic to southern Africa, extending into southeastern Zambia, Zimbabwe, inland Mozambique, Swaziland, western Lesotho, and the eastern half of South Africa. In the west they occur in northern Namibia and north and eastern Botswana, in suitable habitat, avoiding the coastal lowlands of KwaZulu Natal. During the last century they extended their distribution range from the northeastern lowveld and bushveld southwards as far as the Vaal River by the early 1900s. By the 1950s they had colonised the northwestern and eastern Free State, also widespread in central and northern uplands of KwaZulu Natal. Their range expanded through adaptation to cultivation. By the mid-1970s their range also expanded into the northern Cape, eastern Cape, Lesotho and theMpumalanga highveld, partly due to introduction by man. The Swainson’s Spurfowl is widespread and common in the Mopane, Acacia, and Miombo woodland bushveld, in the northern regions of South Africa. In this region they regularly fall prey to the larger eagles, particularly Tawny Eagle, African Hawk Willie Froneman

Photographs: Albert Froneman

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