Pternistis jacksoni
Silhouette: Amanda Kuhlman · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
Jackson's spurfowl or Jackson's francolin (Pternistis jacksoni) is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in the highlands of Kenya and Uganda. Its preferred habitats include mountainous forests and stands of bamboo above 2000 m. It is common in Mount Kenya and the Aberdare range. Males and females are similar in plumage but males have spurs on their legs and tend to be larger.
Jackson's spurfowl has distinctive red bill and legs which sets it apart from the moorland francolin which overlaps in range and the smaller scaly spurfowl is unmarked on the underside. The feather edges on the underside of Jackson's spurfowl are white, marking out the chestnut feathers.
They are said to be monogamous and they breed in December-February in the dry season. Jackson's spurfowl is found mainly above 2000 m on moorland, forest edge, Podocarpus, and bamboo in Kenya in the Aberdare range, Mount Kenya, the Mau Escarpment and Cherangani. The distribution extends into the borders of Uganda in Kapkwata at the edge of Mount Elgon.
Jackson's francolin was described in 1891 by the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant from... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Jackson's Francolin sighting in Aberdare National Park on a given day, based on 329 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 217 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Jackson's Francolin in Aberdare National Park on a given day, against about 40% in March, the lowest month.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Jackson's Francolin sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Aberdare National Park, in our data
Aberdare National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Jackson's Francolin sightings: about 60% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Jackson's Francolin is recorded against all the birds logged in Aberdare National Park (329 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
