Red-necked Francolin
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[Photo] Red-necked Francolin (Francolinus afer); redfaced spurfowl. Photo by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anthony

The Red-necked Francolin, Francolinus afer also known as Red-necked Spurfowl is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. Formerly classified as a Spurfowl, it is now regarded a member of the Francolinus genus.

The Red-necked Francolin breeds across the central belt of Africa and down the east coast to Tanzania.

It is 25???38cm in length, with a significant size difference between the subspecies, of which there are seven. It is a generally dark francolin, brown above and black-streaked grey or white underparts. The bill, bare facial skin, neck and legs are bright red.

The Red-necked Francolin 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 Francolin is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-necked_Francolin

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