Cape Spurfowl Pternistis capensis
Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, Cape Town
07 September 2006

The Cape Spurfowl* is confined to the southern Cape coastal belt area from the Orange River in the north, to Port Elizabeth in the east, extending inland to the southern fringes of the Little Karoo. The largest populations are in the fynbos areas between Gordon’s Bay and Mossel Bay, particularly the wheatfields of the Overberg. Unlike other ‘gamebirds’, the Cape Spurfowl has not been adversely affected by agriculture in that area, and there has been a marked increase in their numbers and conditions have enabled them to flourish.

One of the easiest places to see this usually wary bird is the stunning Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, where the birds are so habituated that they will almost walk over your feet if you keep still enough…

*Up until 2000, the word “francolin” was used to describe all 11 of SA’s “Francolin” species. Although they all carried the same generic name francolinus, English and Afrikaans speaking South Africans had already divided them into two separate groups, namely partridge/patrys and pheasant/fisant. Partridge/patrys was the name for the grassland type francolin, because they behaved like, and looked similar to, the European Partridge Perdix perdix. Pheasant/fisant was the name for the other group because they behaved more like the Common Pheasant Phasianus colchicus and looked different from the grassland birds.

All field-guides published prior to 2000, as well as Roberts’ 6th Edition and Newman’s 7th Edition, refer to all francolin as francolinus. However, it is interesting that J. Stevenson-Hamilton, in his book Wild Life in South Africa (1947-50), refers to the African pheasant Swainson’s, as Bosveld fizants, with the generic name Pternistis. Clancey in his Gamebirds of Southern Africa (1967) also lists both the rednecked and Swainson’s francolin as Pternistis.

All this has been very confusing but using DNA testing and research Dr Rob Little and Prof Tim Crow have finally established that the two groups should be separated and they are reclassified in their book Gamebirds of Southern Africa: from now on the partridge type birds retain the common and generic names, francolin and francolinus while the pheasant-type birds are referred to as spurfowl (ie Swainson’s, Natal, Rednecked, Redbilled, Hartlaub’s and Cape), with the generic name pternistis.

For a report on Kirstenbosch go to Kirstenbosch, and for the official Gardens website go to www.sanbi.org

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores.