Friday, January 3, 2020

Snow partridge

A stone-colored terrestrial bird of stony hillsides, mountain ridges, and meadows above treeline. Adults speckled gray and white above, with dense rusty streaking on white underparts, red bill, and deep red legs. Usually forages in small groups, often in very exposed areas such as cliff sides and rocky ridges. Song, often given by multiple birds in a group simultaneously, is high-pitched and has a slippery, squeaky quality like wet shoes on tile; male song louder and ascending, female’s softer and descending. 
This partridge appears grey above and chestnut below with bright red bill and legs and the upperparts finely barred in black and white. In flight the pattern of dark brown primaries and secondaries with a narrow trailing white margin make them somewhat like the much larger Tibetan snowcock. The 14-feathered tail is dark and barred in white. There is variation in the shade and some birds have a nearly black crown. The primaries and secondaries are brown and the breast is deep chestnut. The abdomen has more white and the lower flanks and feathers around the vent are barred brown and white. The under-tail coverts are chestnut with black shaft streaks and white tips. Young birds have the lower parts mottled and the barring less distinct. The tarsus is feathered on the front of the leg half-way to the toes. 
It measures 38–40 cm in length. Females weigh 450–580 g; males, 550–700 g. Sexes are similar in plumage, female lacks spurs on the tarsus while the male has a blunt spur and sometimes a second incipient spur. Downy chicks have a resemblance to the chicks of the blood pheasant. Chicks are born with the tarsi feathered and the nostril opening is covered by feathers. 

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