Pternistis clappertoni
Silhouette: Amanda Kuhlman · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
Clapperton's spurfowl (Pternistis clappertoni) is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda.
Clapperton's spurfowl was described in 1826 by John George Children and Nicholas Aylward Vigors in an appendix to the Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa by the explorers Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton. Children and Vigors chose to honour Clapperton and coined the binomial name Francolinus clappertoni. In their publication Children and Vigors did not specify where the specimen had been collected but the type locality was later designated as Borno in northeast Nigeria. The species is now placed in the genus Pternistis that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that Clapperton's spurfowl is sister to Harwood's spurfowl. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Clapperton's Francolin sighting in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, based on 288 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 4th most-seen of the 332 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Clapperton's Francolin in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, against about 60% in January–February, August and November, the lowest months. That is one of Kidepo Valley National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain against 130 mm in July. April and May have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Clapperton'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 Kidepo Valley National Park, in our data
Kidepo Valley National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Clapperton's Francolin sightings: about 70% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Clapperton's Francolin is recorded against all the birds logged in Kidepo Valley National Park (288 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.
