Black Francolin

The black francolin is a gamebird of the pheasant family, formerly called the black partridge, 33–36 cm long and about 453 g. The male is black with a white patch on the cheek, a chestnut collar and white spots on the flanks. The back and wings are scalloped in golden brown, and the rounded tail is black with narrow white or greyish bars. Legs and neck are reddish brown to red. The amount of white spotting on the flanks varies across its range, and females also vary in depth of colour (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a resident breeder from south-eastern Turkey east through Iran and Central Asia to north-east India, and is the state bird of Haryana. The male's loud ringing call is heard in the mornings and evenings and almost all day in the breeding season, given from an earth mound, bund, rock or low branch, and other males answer. It nests in tall grassland from late March to May, laying 10–14 eggs that only the hen incubates. Over-hunting has reduced its range and numbers. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, with an inconclusive long-term trend of about −28% (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).