biology

Harwood's spurfowl

Harwood's spurfowl is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harwood's spurfowl rather than just read about it. In short: Harwood's spurfowl (Pternistis harwoodi), also known as Harwood's Francolin, is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is a grey-brown bird with red bill and tail, and red bare skin around the eyes.

Key takeaways

Harwood's spurfowl belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harwood's spurfowl to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harwood's spurfowl from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harwood's spurfowl (Pternistis harwoodi), also known as Harwood's Francolin, is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is a grey-brown bird with red bill and tail, and red bare skin around the eyes. Both sexes have similar coloring, although the female is paler in color with a more extensive buff belly. This spurfowl is endemic to Ethiopia, having a range restricted to the Ethiopian Highlands on either side of the Blue Nile River between Lake Tana and its confluence with the Jamma River, as well as its tributaries between these points. Originally thought to inhabit Typha beds growing along small, shallow watercourses and acacia thickets, studies in 1996 found Harwood's spurfowl in a site with neither of these. It is threatened by habitat loss as population pressures force locals into the marginal scrublands favored by the bird as its habitat. Harwood's spurfowl is heavily hunted for food and is sometimes also caught for sale at local markets; its eggs are also a food source.

Taxonomy Harwood's spurfowl was described in 1899 by the English ornithologists Herbert Weld Blundell and Simon Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat from a specimen that they had collected in the Aheafeg area of Ethiopia. They coined the binomial name Francolinus harwoodi. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the taxidermist and naturalist Leonard Harwood (fl. 1899). The species is now placed in the genus Pternistis that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1832. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that Harwood's spurfowl is sister to Clapperton's spurfowl. Harwood's spurfowl is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

References

External links BirdLife Species Factsheet. Xeno-canto: audio recordings of Harwood's spurfowl

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harwood's spurfowl

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harwood's spurfowl claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harwood's spurfowl before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harwood's spurfowl ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harwood's spurfowl

In research: Harwood's spurfowl appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harwood's spurfowl in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harwood's spurfowl is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1899, Endemic birds of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Highlands endemic bird fauna, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harwood's spurfowl outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harwood's spurfowl in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harwood's spurfowl means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harwood's spurfowl out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harwood's spurfowl in simple terms?

Why does Harwood's spurfowl matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harwood's spurfowl?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harwood's spurfowl.