Scleroptila

Scleroptila
	Ring-necked francolin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Phasianidae
Tribe:	Gallini
Genus:	Scleroptila; Blyth, 1852
Type species
	Perdix levaillantii; Valenciennes, 1825
Species
	See text
Synonyms
	Francolinus

Scleroptila is a genus of birds in the francolin group of the tribe Gallini of the pheasant family. Its nine species range through Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus Scleroptila was introduced in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth.^[1] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek σκληρος/sklēros meaning "stiff" with πτιλον/ptilon meaning "feather".^[2] Blyth listed two species in the genus but did not specify the type. In 1893 William Robert Ogilvie-Grant designated the type as Perdix levaillantii Valenciennes, 1825, the red-winged francolin.^[3]^[4]

The genus contains nine species are:^[5]

Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
Ring-necked francolin	Scleroptila streptophora	Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Red-winged francolin	Scleroptila levaillantii	Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
Finsch's francolin	Scleroptila finschi	Angola, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, parts of Cameroon, and Gabon
Moorland francolin	Scleroptila psilolaema	Ethiopia
Grey-winged francolin	Scleroptila afra	Lesotho and South Africa
Orange River francolin	Scleroptila gutturalis	Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Kenya
Shelley's francolin	Scleroptila shelleyi	Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe
Whyte's francolin	Scleroptila whytei	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and Zambia
Elgon francolin	Scleroptila elgonensis	Uganda (Mount Elgon) to central Kenya

References

↑ Blyth, Edward (1849). Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum Asiatic Society. Calcutta: J. Thomas (published 1852). p. 250. Although the title page is dated 1849, the book was not published until 1852. See: Dickinson, E.C.; Overstreet, L.K.; Dowsett, R.J.; Bruce, M.D. (2011). Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers. Northampton, UK: Aves Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-9568611-1-5.
↑ Jobling, James A. "Scleroptila". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
↑ Ogilvie-Grant, W.R. (1893). Catalogue of the Game Birds (Pterocletes, Gallinae, Opisthocomi, Hemipodii) in the collection of the British Museum. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. 22. London: British Museum. p. 127.
↑ Dickinson, E.C.; Remsen, J.V. Jr., eds. (2013). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1: Non-passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-9568611-0-8.
↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 18 March 2026.

Scleroptila

Taxonomy

References

Further reading