Grey Francolin
Manu moa/ Chicken Bird/ तीतर
Ortygornis pondicerianus/ Francolinus ponticerianus
Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary
While looking up the photos of the Chinkara I came across another familiar bird, a bird which my grandfather said was a good meal during their shikars, the Grey Francolin or Teetar. I am sure those who have read Jim Corbett or Kenneth Anderson will wholeheartedly agree that this is a bird they have often come across as both shikaris sat down for their meals.
There are times, I remember from my childhood, when door to door vendors would sometimes arrive at our home with Grey Francolin (Francolinus ponticerianus) in large cane baskets. This used to be a very special treat, like quail. For a brief period in time, during the 80s, these game birds were farmed & were available at speciality shops which stocked game birds. Fortunately or unfortunately with the increasing industrialisation of food, and the homogenisation of tastes that followed, these farms either shut down or turned to battery farming of chicken. As a result my memories of game birds has faded over the years.
The teetar are found across the plains of India and Pakistan, and in the coastal areas of Iran, north of the Gulf of Oman. The IUCN red list classifies as of least concern for conservation. Although the plains of India are heavily urbanised, their habitat is rocky and barren scrublands which are of least concern to developers, at least for now. But there is another reason for the survival of the teetar. There are some species of birds and animals, which, although widespread, have extremely low genetic diversity and therefore need special conservation efforts. The Grey Francolin however, especially their genetics, has been studied mainly in one population in central Pakistan and has displayed high genetic diversity. If this can be verified in other populations across the range of this bird, then it would be further reason to believe that the Grey Francolin is one of the few lucky species not to need special protection from us.
With that said let’s get to the habitats where I have seen the teetar.
I have come across the teetar at a number of different locations - from the Manjira Wildlife Sanctuary near home all the way west to the Little Rann of Kutch - and listed here are only a couple.
Manjira Wildlife Sanctuary
The Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary is situated along the river Manjeera at a distance of 5 km from the quaint town of Sangareddy and about 50 kms northwest of the capital city of Hyderabad. The sanctuary, spread over 20 sqkms, follows the course of the Manjeera River, a tributary of the mighty River Godavari, for 36 km and is also home to the Manjeera Bird Sanctuary and has a manmade reservoir which provides drinking water to the twin cities of Hyderabad & Secunderabad. It has nine small islands, including Puttigadda, Bapangadda, Sangamadda and Karnamgadda containing extensive marshy fringes, which act as nesting sites for aquatic birds. Additionally, a thick cover of trees provide nesting spots for other birds.
The vegetation found around this freshwater ecosystem is of the dry savannah type and the reservoir supports both submergence & emergent types of vegetation. The periphery is abundantly covered by the plant species of Typha, Ipomoea and Acacia while agricultural fields surround the reservoir and river.
Originally this riverine habitat was developed as a crocodile sanctuary to protect the Vulnerable Mugger Crocodile, a medium-sized broad-snouted crocodile, native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian Subcontinent. Today between 400 and 700 crocodiles call this home along with over 70 species of birds, fresh water turtles, prawns, molluscs and various varieties of fish. I have also seen monitor lizards & cobras and am told there are Indian Hares, Wild Boar, Mongoose & Jackals.
By some counts there are over 73 species of birds seen here like the large flocks of common teals & cotton pygmy goose & ruddy shelduck. Upstream is home to a significant number of cranes and bar-headed geese and the native breeders like the Darter, Asian Openbills, Painted Storks, Eurasian Coot and the Black-crowned Night Heron.
On the banks of the Manjeera river, in a village called Kalabgoor, there is a temple that is said to have been constructed some 800 years ago during the glorious reign of the Kakatiyas. The temple like all temples of legend has magnificent architecture and is entirely made of stone, with some standing pillars created out of a single block. The temple is dedicated to the lord Shiva and also houses other gods like Lord Krishna, Ganapati & the goddess Saraswati.
The sanctuary has an Environmental Education Centre consisting of a museum, a library, and an auditorium where films about birds and animals are shown daily. There are boat services available to take the visitors around the sanctuary for bird watching, with binoculars and books to identify birds provided to visitors. The museum has exhibits depicting the complex biodiversity of the wetlands. The best season to visit this sanctuary is from November to March when major migrant birds nest and breed here. Accommodation for visitors is available at inspection bungalows in the town of Sangareddy, Singur and Sadasivapet.
The grasslands of Kumbhargaon
When one looks to the south of Bhigwan, one sees the wide Ujni backwater wetlands - illustrated in this 16 photo single row panorama - a shallow waste water reserve formed by the discharge of water from the Pune region dams like Panshet, Pawna, Khadakwasla, Varasgaon, Temghar, etc. This semi waste water has created an excellent wetland based ecosystem supporting a large variety of water birds, both endemic & migratory, and also helped with the local agriculture. Nearly 300 species of endemic and migratory birds have been recorded here. The rainfall in the Pune region decides the water level in Ujni dam. Lesser the water, the shallower it becomes inviting more birds make it their home in the winter.
Surrounding this lush wetland ecosystem are the rich grasslands and fertile farms home to an equally impressive list of birds, mammals and reptiles like the Indian courser, grey francolin, woolly-necked stork, and demoiselle cranes. The Indian chameleon is often seen here and after dark, creatures of the night like the Asian Palm civet, leopard gecko and termite hill gecko are out and about. Although rare, the common sand boa, rat snake, and Russell’s viper are also seen. The open areas around the villages host mammals like the black-naped hare, jungle cat, golden jackal, and Indian grey mongoose. The extensive grasslands protect many mammals like the Chinkara, the Hyena, Wolf and the Indian fox. It is also popular for grassland birds and the birds of prey, including the Steppe Eagle and the rare Imperial Eagle. While largely unnoticed, frogs, toads, damselflies, dragonflies, beetles, and scorpions also inhabit the area. A study published by the Zoological Survey of India in 2002 reported 54 species of fish.
Apart from the grasslands, specifically for the migratory water birds, there are two areas where one can observe them:
the Diksal area &
the Kumbharwadi area.
Read more about some of the birds I have photographed in and around the Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary and the Kumbhargaon grasslands area.
During my time at Bhigwan we were hosted by & had the expert help of Sandip Nagare & his team of knowledgeable guides from the Agnipankha Bird Watcher group, especially Ganesh Bhoi, who went out of their way to ensure we had fantastic opportunities to explore, discover, observe and photograph over 82 species of birds and wildlife including some rare ones. We stayed at Sandip’s homestay of the same name and had the added pleasure of indulging in delectable home cooked food.
Now onto this resilient game bird who has managed to survive with and without the intervention of humans.
Grey Francolin/ Teetar
The Grey Francolin (Ortygornis pondicerianus/ Francolinus ponticerianus), also known as "manu moa" or "chicken bird", is a species of francolin found in the open grassy areas such as dry grasslands, scrub, and agricultural lands, plains and drier parts of the Indian subcontinent and Iran. This species was formerly also called the grey partridge but not to be confused with the European grey partridge. They are mainly ground-living birds and are found in open cultivated lands as well as scrub forest and their local name of teetar is based on their calls, a loud and repeated Ka-tee-tar...tee-tar which is produced by one or more birds. The term teetar can also refer to other partridges and quails. During the breeding season calling males attract challengers, and decoys were used to trap these birds especially for fighting.
The grey francolin was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the grouse like birds in the genus Tetrao and coined the binomial name Tetrao pondicerianus. Gmelin based his description on "Le perdix de Pondichéry" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat in his Voyage aux Indes orientales et a la Chine. The grey francolin was formerly placed in the genus Francolinus. Based on a phylogenetic study published in 2019 the grey francolin, together with the crested francolin and swamp francolin, were moved to the resurrected genus Ortygornis that had been introduced in 1852 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ortux meaning "quail" with ornis meaning "bird". The specific epithet pondicerianus is from the toponym Pondicherry, a town in southeast India.
Three subspecies are recognised:
O. p. mecranensis (Zarudny & Härms, 1913) – south Iran and south Pakistan
O. p. interpositus (Hartert, E, 1917) – east Pakistan, north India and Nepal
O. p. pondicerianus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – south India and Sri Lanka
This bird is medium-sized, with males averaging 29–34 cm and females averaging 26–30 cm. The males weigh about 260–340 g whereas the weight of the females is 200–310 g. The francolin is barred throughout and the face is pale with a thin black border to the pale throat. The only similar species is the painted francolin, which has a rufous vent. The male can have up to two spurs on the legs while females usually lack them. The subspecies mecranensis is palest and found in arid North-Western India, Eastern Pakistan and Southern Iran while the subspecies interpositus is darker and intermediate found in northern India. The nominate race in the southern peninsula of India has populations with a darker rufous throat, supercilium and is richer brown. They are weak fliers and fly short distances, escaping into undergrowth after a few spurts of flight. In flight it shows a chestnut tail and dark primaries. The race in Sri Lanka is sometimes given the name ceylonensis or considered as belonging to the nominate.
They are normally found foraging on bare or low grass covered ground in scrub and open country, and is rarely found above an altitude of 500 m above sea level in India, and 1200 m in Pakistan. The distribution is south of the foothills of the Himalayas westwards to the Indus Valley and eastwards to Bengal. It is also found in north-western Sri Lanka. Introduced populations are found in the Andaman and Chagos Islands. They have been introduced to Nevada in the United States of America and Hawaii, along with several other species of francolin.
The species has long been domesticated in areas of northern Indian subcontinent where it is used for fighting. The domesticated birds can be large at around 500-600g, compared to 250g for wild birds. They are usually carefully reared by hand and become as tame and confiding as a pet dog.
Several authors have described the running of the birds as being particularly graceful:
They run very swiftly and gracefully; they seem to glide rather than run, and the native lover can pay no higher compliment to his mistress than to liken her gait to that of the Partridge.
— A O Hume quoted in Ogilvie-Grant
John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father, wrote of this and other partridges such as the chukar partridge:
The creature follows its master with a rapid and pretty gait that suggests a graceful girl tripping along with a full skirt well held up. The Indian lover can pay his sweetheart no higher compliment than to say she runs like a partridge. In poetry the semblance is one of best hackneyed of Indian metaphors. In poetry, too, the partridge is associated with the moon, and, like the lotus, is supposed to be perpetually longing for it, while the chikore is said to eat fire.
— Kipling, 1904
They are hunted in much of their range using low nets and easily caught using calling decoy birds and once a common sight we now have to travel far to see them.
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