Manu Minute

Manu Minute: The Erckel's francolin

Published October 21, 2021 at 4:00 PM HST

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Erckel’s francolins are plump, partridge-like birds with a distinctive chestnut-colored cap on their heads, a black stripe on their eyes and foreheads, and chestnut streaked feathers on their chests and backs.

Ann Tanimoto-Johnson

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Erckel's francolins have black bills and yellow-grey legs and feet. They’re about 16 inches long and weigh a little more than two pounds. Both male and female francolins look similar in plumage coloration.

Ann Tanimoto-Johnson

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Female francolins lay a large clutch of eggs in a nest on the ground. When the young hatch, they are already covered with feathers and are ready to forage on their own.

Ann Tanimoto-Johnson

We've got one game bird a long way from home: the Erckel's francolin. Native to Eritrea, Sudan, and Ethiopia, Hawaiʻi is one of only a handful of places you can find an Erckel's francolin outside of Africa. They were introduced to the islands during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and populations thrived on Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, and Hawaiʻi Island.

AMTJ_Manu Minute, Erckel's francolin spectrogram video.mp4

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Manu Minute Hawaii birds LOHE Lab UH Hilo

Patrick Hart

Patrick Hart interests in the ecology and conservation of Hawaiian forests and forest birds stem from years of living in a primitive field camp as a graduate student in the 1990’s at Hakalau Forest National wildlife refuge.

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Ann Tanimoto-Johnson

Ann Tanimoto-Johnson is the Lab Manager & Research Technician in the Hart Lab/Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems (LOHE) Bioacoustics Lab. She researches the ecology, bioacoustics, and conservation of our native Hawaiian forests, birds, and bats.

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Savannah Harriman-Pote

Savannah Harriman-Pote rejoined The Conversation in 2021 after interning for Hawaiʻi Public Radio in the summers of 2018 and 2019. She also produces HPR's podcast Manu Minute in collaboration with The University of Hawaii at Hilo. She was born and raised on the Big Island, and she collects public radio mugs.

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