Red Spurfowl

(Galloperdix spadicea)

• Avicultural Data
• Images
• Bibliography
• Links

Galloperdix spadicea Photo by Kristin Cowell

Range: India, range overlaps with Painted Spurfowl, but prefers lusher habitats.

Subspecies: G. s. spadicea, G. s. caurina - Aravalli Red Spurfowl, G. s. stewarti - Travancore Red Spurfowl.

Habitat: Scrublands, bamboo thickets and woodlands.

Description: spadicea - Males with red facial skin, crown, cheeks and throat finely spotted with grey & white; overall rufous-brown with darker tail; typically with 2 spurs on each leg. Females differ from males with mottled black on upper parts; sometimes spurless, but may carry one per leg. caurina - Males much lighter than spadicea with wide faint grey feather margins; females very pale, with black mottling replaced with very fine grey vermiculations. stewarti - Darkest race, males deeper chestnut-red, females with deeper buff and dark barring.

Status in Wild: Has proven to be somewhat adaptable to habitat changes and is considered not threatened at this time.

Avicultural Data

Status in Aviculture: Has never been very common in American aviculture, but as in many partridges and francolins, it was regularly kept and bred in our aviaries just a few decades ago. I have been unable to track down the current status of this species in private collections and also noted that ISIS does not have any listed either. The bird in the photograph to the right was taken at the Omaha Zoo in 2002, apparently, they are no longer there.

Click on thumbnails for larger views.

Photo Credits
(l to r): .

Any help with photos would be greatly appreciated; e-mail lophura@hughes.net if you can help.

• Grewel, B. 2000. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Local Colour Limited, Hong Kong.
• Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., Inskipp, T. 1999. Birds of India. Christopher Helm, London; Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
• Johnsgard, P.A. 1988. The Quails, Partridges, and Francolins of the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
• Madge, S., McGowan, P. 2002. Pheasants, Partridges, and Grouse. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
• Robbins, G.E.S. 1998. Partridges & Francolins, their Conservation, Breeding & Management. World Pheasant Association.

Links related to this species. Please note, links will open in a new window.

• Galloperdix spadicea Images - Images of this species located at the Phasianidae group on flickr.
• Red Spurfowl - BirdLife species factsheet.
• Red Spurfowl - The Oriental Bird Club Image Database.
• Wikipedia - Red Spurfowl - Wikipedia's species page.