Pternistis icterorhynchus
Silhouette: Amanda Kuhlman · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Heuglin's spurfowl (Pternistis icterorhynchus) is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda. The German explorer Theodor von Heuglin first described the species.
Heuglin's spurfowl was described in 1863 by the German ornithologist and explorer Theodor von Heuglin from specimens collected near the Pongo River in what is now the Bahr el Ghazal region of South Sudan. He coined the binomial name Francolinus icterorhynchus. The specific epithet icterorhynchus combines the Ancient Greek ikteros meaning "jaundice-yellow" and rhunkhos meaning "bill". 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 Heuglin's spurfowl is sister to the double-spurred spurfowl. Heuglin's spurfowl is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Image at ADW Xeno-canto: audio recordings of Heuglin's spurfowl Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's Francolin sighting in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, based on 279 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 84th most-seen of the 424 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–July and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's Francolin in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February, April and December, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Heuglin'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 Murchison Falls National Park, in our data
Murchison Falls National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Heuglin's Francolin sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Heuglin's Francolin is recorded against all the birds logged in Murchison Falls National Park (279 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.
