A finely patterned bird that blends into grassland, endemic to South Africa and Lesotho and found in mountains and rocky hills.
The upperparts are grey-brown with white or buff barring, and the underparts have fine black-and-white bars. Males are larger and have strong leg spurs.
Grey-winged Francolins occur in South Africa and Lesotho. They use short grass and small bushes in mountain grassland and also reach low-lying country near the southwestern coast. They live in coveys and reveal their presence through distinctive calls; ground vegetation helps shape their habitat.
A study published in 1993 followed breeding on the Stormberg Plateau in eastern South Africa during 1988–1991. Females alone incubated. Mean clutch size was about 5.5 eggs and mean incubation lasted about 21.7 days, keeping breeding birds at their ground nests for roughly three weeks.
Of the eggs still present when hatching occurred, 90% produced live young. In contrast, the estimated probability that a clutch survived the incubation period was 31%. Successful hatching therefore depended both on development within eggs and on nests persisting through incubation. The authors also considered disturbance from burning during breeding.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The southern African atlas identifies early-summer veld burning as a human influence detrimental to breeding success. Breeding comparisons also found geographical differences in the laying season, with a shorter season in the southwestern Cape. Relating grassland management to local breeding timing is relevant to protecting nests.