Chestnut-naped spurfowl
species of bird
The chestnut-naped spurfowl (Pternistis castaneicollis) is a species of bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. At 33–37 cm (13–15 in) in length and weighing 550–1,200 g (19–42 oz), it is a large species of spurfowl.
It is found in Ethiopia and Somaliland. The population is believed to be stable but according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) there is insufficient data to make an estimate of the population.
Taxonomy
The chestnut-naped spurfowl was described in 1888 by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori based on a specimen collected near "Lago Ciar-Ciar" (now Haro Ch'erch'er Hayk') in the Ahmar Mountains of central Ethiopia. He coined the binomial name Francolinus castaneicollis. The species is now placed in the genus Pternistis that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832. The specific epithet castaneicollis combines the Latin castaneus meaning "chestnut-brown" and the Modern Latin -collis meaning "necked".
Some taxonomies (eBird/Clements; IOC) list the black-fronted spurfowl as a subspecies (P. c. atrifrons).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Chestnut-naped spurfowl” as species of bird. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of bird. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1261619. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1888 and 1832.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chestnut-naped spurfowl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.