Swierstra's Francolin is a ground-dwelling bird of the highlands of western Angola. The female is described as smaller and duller than the male.
It is generally brown above and whitish below, with a red bill and legs, a black collar, and black sides. The female is smaller and duller than the male.
Swierstra’s Spurfowl lives in the Angolan highlands. At Mount Moco it has been seen walking through forest leaf litter. Scattered montane forests and their edges provide places where it lives.
During July–August 2009, ten forest patches at Mount Moco were searched and birds were found in seven. Most patches were elongated, and researchers walked along their edges listening and looking for birds. Several separate small forests still held the species.
At that time, 30 forest patches larger than half a hectare were estimated to total about 85 hectares. Extrapolating densities from surveyed forest, the authors estimated at least 75 pairs on the mountain. Combining bird locations with forest maps made conservation priorities more concrete.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2011 Mount Moco paper identified fire, removal of wood and conversion to cultivation as pressures on the remaining forests. Its authors proposed a protected area encompassing these forests. Montane forest patches and their edges are important conservation habitat for the species.