PAKHI DEKHOON PAKHI CHINOON ... OBSERVE THE BIRD AND RECOGNIZE...RED SPURFOWL

PAKHI DEKHOON PAKHI CHINOON #619... OBSERVE THE BIRD AND RECOGNIZE...RED SPURFOWL... WATERCOLOUR...A4 INCH.. 2016...[From the photograph of Mr. Mahesh Reddy] ... The red spurfowl (Galloperdix spadicea) is a member of the pheasant family and is endemic to India. It is a bird of forests, and is quite secretive despite its size. It has a distinctive call and is often hard to see except for a few seconds when it flushes from the undergrowth. It appears reddish and like a long-tailed partridge. The bare skin around the eye is reddish. The legs of both males and females have one or two spurs, which give them their name.
Overall reddish-brown, this large partridge-like bird has a somewhat long tail. The upper parts are brown with dark barring while the face and neck are more grey in the male. The underside is rufous with dark markings and both sexes have a red facial skin patch and red legs with one or two spurs (rarely three or four while females may have none).
Red spurfowl usually forage in small parties of three to five. When walking around, the tail is sometimes held vertical as in domestic fowl. They are quite silent in the day but call in the mornings and evenings. They feed on fallen seeds, berries, molluscs and insects apart from swallowing grit to aid digestion.
The calls include a distinct ker-wick...kerwick... and harsh karr...karrr... notes. The Marathi name Kokatri is echoic in origin.[info:wikipedia]