Przevalski's Partridge
Alectoris magna
Medium-sized gamebird endemic to the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, where it inhabits rocky hillsides and valley slopes with grassy or sparse brushy cover. Very similar to the much more widespread and closely related Chukar, but note present species’ pale lores and slightly different head and neck patterning: the dark band that runs down the neck is extensively warm tawny-brown, and forms an extremely thin, almost broken collar (Chukar has a black band that forms a thick, solid collar). Often forages in dense vegetation, breaking cover to give its accelerating clucking song or to survey territory; in winter, may come down to settlements in areas where not hunted intensively.
Taxonomy
Przevalski's partridge has two recognized subspecies:<p>The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky.
- Scientific name
- Alectoris magna
- Authority
- (Przevalski, 1876)
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Phasianidae
- Genus
- Alectoris
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Vertical migration
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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