Spurfowl, Tsavo West, Kenya (1 Viewer)

[Steve Keen]

Been stewing on this one since I saw in, in Tsavo West 2/2/23, not too far from Ngulia Lodge.
It would've gone down as Hildebrandt's were it not for the striking red bill and legs, more reminiscent of Scaly.
The only other spurfowl seen that day were a couple of Yellow-necked, so nothing to compare it with, and didn't (otherwise) see Hildebrandt's on the trip. Am I just overthinking it, and this is within the range of variation for Hildebrandt's, or am I overlooking something?

 

[njlarsen]

No experience myself, but check ebird for images with variable colors of bill: https://ebird.org/species/hilfra2

 

[THE_FERN]

Hildebrandt's: mantle on scaly more scaly

 

[Steve Keen]

njlarsen: yes, have looked at a lot of pics on eBird and elsewhere, but can't find any that are quite so brightly-billed
THE FERN: yes again, it was just the brightness of the bill that had me a little puzzled, and because I was puzzled at the time, I've let it get in my head a bit.

But with some backup (ie: nobody disagreeing as such) it will be stuck down as Hildebrandt's.

Cheers both of you

 

[MacNara]

The only one I have seen was like your bird. The illustrations in 'Birds of East Africa' seem to lack the red especially on the male, but those in 'Birds of Africa South of the Sahara' show the strong red clearly (although the black spotting here doesn't look very natural).