Ahanta Spurfowl
Pternistis ahantensis
Medium-sized dull gray-brown francolin with an orange-red bill and legs. With a good view, white streaks are evident on the neck and underparts. Found in gallery forest, forest edge, secondary scrub, and plantations. Shy and usually difficult to see, except when crossing a road or path. The call is a series of very rough notes that become quicker and more emphatic, often delivered as a duet. Can be found in the same areas as Double-spurred and Latham’s Francolins, but separated by many details, including the reddish bill and legs.
Taxonomy
The Ahanta francolin was described in 1854 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck from specimens collected in the Dutch Gold Coast, now southern Ghana, and given the binomial name Francolinus ahantensis. Ahanta was the name of a region and a people in what is now the Western Region of the Republic of Ghana. The species is now placed in the genus Pternistis that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832. The Ahanta spurfowl is treated as monotypic: the proposed subspecies hopkinsoni is not recognised.
- Scientific name
- Pternistis ahantensis
- Authority
- (Temminck, 1854)
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Phasianidae
- Genus
- Pternistis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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