This spurfowl is endemic to Ethiopia. At the study sites, breeding females' plumage blended with the ground and stones, while males gave territorial calls.
In the Upper Blue Nile Basin study, breeding females had fine grey-brown to dark-brown vermiculated plumage that matched the ground background.
Harwood’s Spurfowl lives in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile basin. Its shallow ground nests use dry grasses and fine twigs, often near rocks. The females’ grey-brown plumage matched the surrounding ground.
Observations from August–December 2020 showed only females incubating. Incubation lasted 19–23 days. Females left to forage and sometimes ate seeds from grasses covering farmland nests.
Mothers led newly hatched chicks into nearby vegetation. Males escorted females and occasionally tossed food to chicks, but mothers provided most care.
IUCN Red List · Near Threatened · Global
The 2018 IUCN assessment is Near Threatened. The 2024 nesting study documented egg collecting and farming-related nest losses and recommended reducing vegetation cutting during breeding and preventing hunting and egg collection.