Overview
This bird's plumage is patterned with grey, brown, white and black, but this snowcock looks grey from any distance. The breast is darker and the flanks ruddier than the rest of the body. It has a white throat and a white patch on the side of the neck. The nape is rust-coloured. In flight, this wary bird shows white flight feathers and undertail, and reddish sides to the tail. Male and female plumages are similar, but the juvenile is slightly smaller and duller in appearance.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Bird
- Family
- Phasianidae
- Genus
- Tetraogallus
- Species
- caucasicus
Habitat
Bare stony mountains only within the Caucasian Mountains.
Diet
Seeds and vegetable matter.
Behavior
It nests in a bare ground scrape and lays typically 5-6 greenish eggs, which are incubated only by the female. It forms small flocks when not breeding. Caucasian snowcock has a desolate whistling song, vaguely like a Eurasian curlew, sooo-looo-leeee. The calls include loud cackles and bubbled buck-buck-buck-buck-burrrrrr.
Hunting
Typically flushed and hunted with a 20 gauge shotgun.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern by IUCN.