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FRANCOLINS

The five species of FRANCOLIN living in the Park are very similar in habits and appearance. All are a soil-coloured overall brown, streaked and blotched with light and dark shading which provides ideal camouflage in their preferred grass-covered open bushveld environment. Here they are found in pairs or small groups, searching for plant seeds, bulbs or insects and other small creatures. They are very much ground-loving birds, running rapidly through the grass when alarmed, rather than flying. Often when sensing oncoming footsteps, they will remain frozen, depending on their camouflage to fool the intruder. Sometimes they fly up with angry, raucous calls just before being stepped on. They nest in shallow depressions under a bush or obscured among a clump of grasses, and four to nine pale, often speckled, eggs are laid. The fluffy little chicks have such good camouflage colours that when they lie quietly, as they do when danger is suspected, it is very difficult to see them.

Swainson's Francolin (Francolinus swainsonii) and the Natal Francolin (Francolinus natalensis) are the most abundant and wide spread of the species. They are often seen at the roadside, calmly peck ing away at old elephant dung in search of insects, and regularly casting a wary eye at the visitor until they scuttle into the under growth if they feel threatened. Coqui Francolin (F. coqui coqui), Crested Francolin (F. sephaen and Shelley's Francolin (F. shel leyi) are all rarer and localized in their distribution, but are often seen by visitors driving through their chosen habitats.

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