PLEASE! If you see any mistakes, I'm 100% sure that I have wrongly identified some birds.
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
The Grey Francolin (formerly also called the Grey Partridge, but not to be confused with the European Grey Partridge) Francolinus pondicerianus is a species of francolin found in the plains and drier parts of South Asia. They are found in open cultivated lands as well as scrub forest and their local name of teetar is based on their calls, a loud and repeated Ka-tee-tar...tee-tar which is produced by one or more birds.
The term teetar can also refer to other partridges and quails. During the breeding season calling males attract challengers and decoys were used to trap these birds especially for fighting.
Habitat and distribution
The Grey Francolin is normally found foraging on bare or low grass covered ground in scrub and open country, and is rarely found above an altitude of 500 m above sea level in India, and 1200 m in Pakistan. The distribution is south of the foothills of the Himalayas westwards to the Indus valley and eastwards to Bengal.
It is also found in north-western Sri Lanka. Introduced populations are found in the Andaman and Chagos Islands. They have been introduced to Nevada in the United States of America and Hawaii, along with several other species of francolin
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net
is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there
Distribution map
Description
It is a medium-sized francolin with males averaging 29–34 cm and females averaging 26–30 cm. The males weigh 260–340 g whereas the weight of the females is 200–310 g. The francolin is barred throughout and the face is pale with a thin black border to the pale throat. The only similar species is the painted francolin, which has a rufous vent. The male can have up to two spurs on the legs while females usually lack them.
Subspecies mecranensis is palest and found in arid north-western India, Eastern Pakistan and Southern Iran. Subspecies interpositus is darker and intermediate found in northern India. The nominate race in the southern peninsula of India has populations with a darker rufous throat, supercilium and is richer brown.
They are weak fliers and fly short distances, escaping into undergrowth after a few spurts of flight. In flight it shows a chestnut tail and dark primaries. The race in Sri Lanka is sometimes given the name ceylonensis or considered as belonging to the nominate.
Length:
29-34 cm
Wingspan:
cm
Weight:
260-340 g
Longevity:
-
Distinctive Feature
-
Similar Species
-
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are three recognized subspecies:
• F. p. interpositus (Hartert, 1917) - north Indian Grey Francolin - northwest India and Pakistan
• F. p. mecranensis (Zarudny and Harms, 1913) - Baluchistan Grey Francolin - arid southeastern Iran and southern Pakistan
• F. p. pondicerianus (Gmelin, 1789) - nominate - southern India and Sri Lanka
Behaviour and ecology
The loud calls of the birds are commonly heard early in the mornings. Pairs of birds will sometimes engage in a duet. The female call is a tee...tee...tee repeated and sometimes a kila..kila..kila and the challenge call kateela..kateela..kateela is a duet. They are usually seen in small groups.
Listen to the Grey francolin
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Remarks from the Recordist
Calling from dense scrub on edge of field on bank; two cuts of same bird taken c1min apart.
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Remarks from the Recordist
Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder High pass filter applied in Audacity
I have tried for a long time to get a picture of the Grey Francolin but they are very scared. I see 3 birds and when the sense my presence they hide in the bushes. I walk slowly towards the bush trying to get a picture.
We can hear in the recording how I approach and then rattling noises from the bushes and the wing flaps when the bird take off leaving me behind without any picture.
The main breeding season is April to September and the nest is a hidden scrape on the ground. The nest may sometimes be made above ground level in a niche in a wall or rock. The clutch is six to eight eggs but larger clutches have been noted.
Food includes seeds, grains as well as insects, particularly termites and beetles (especially Tenebrionidae and Carabidae). They may occasionally take larger prey such as snakes.
They roost in groups in low thorny trees. Several species of feather mites, helminth and blood parasites have been described from the species.
Status
They are hunted in much of their range using low nets and easily caught using calling decoy birds.
A captive decoy
Conservation status
Least Concern
(IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
In culture
The species has long been domesticated in areas of northern India and Pakistan where it is used for fighting. The domesticated birds can be large at around 500-600g, compared to 250g for wild birds. They are usually carefully reared by hand and become as tame and confiding as a pet dog.
The spurs of the male. From Le Messurier, 1904.
By Le Messurier A - Game, Shore and water birds of India, Public Domain, Link
Several authors have described the running of the birds as being particularly graceful:
They run very swiftly and gracefully; they seem to glide rather than run, and the native lover can pay no higher compliment to his mistress than to liken her gait to that of the Partridge.
—A O Hume quoted in Ogilvie-Grant
John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father, wrote of this and other partridges such as the chukar partridge:
The creature follows its master with a rapid and pretty gait that suggests a graceful girl tripping along with a full skirt well held up. The Indian lover can pay his sweetheart no higher compliment than to say she runs like a partridge. In poetry the semblance is one of best hackneyed of Indian metaphors. In poetry, too, the partridge is associated with the moon, and, like the lotus, is supposed to be perpetually longing for it, while the chikore is said to eat fire.
—Kipling, 1904
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 18 January 2016
Location: Ranthambhore, India
Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same.
I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures.
And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.
We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.
So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help. And from November 2018 I use eBird. Bird watching in U.A.E and Oman and my guide in Dubai recommended eBird and I have used the app since then and I note every bird I can identify in my eBird app.
PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook
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