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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing the crested partridge. These birds get their common name because males of this species have a "shaving brush" shaped crest of red feathers. This plume appears early in life and sets the lads apart from the ladies. While males sport dark bluish body feathers, females have a green hue to their plumage and cinnamon colored wings. Both sexes, however, display a red ring around their eyes. In size, these birds reach about ten inches (25 cm) long and they have a shrill call that sounds like this. 

Crested partridges live throughout southeast Asia in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They're considered lowland animals, though they've been observed at elevations up to almost a mile (1,600 m). Little is known about their behaviors in the wild because they prefer densely forested woodlands and bamboo thickets where they're difficult to study. Most information about these birds has been gathered from captive individuals in zoos. Crested partridges are similar to jungle fowl in their foraging behavior. They scratch at the ground and leaf litter while they search for meals in the form of seeds, insects, and fruits dropped from the trees above. They're often found in association with wild pigs! 

Crested partridges are somewhat common in zoos and other captive facilities, but they're considered "Vulnerable" to extinction in the wild. They're trapped by humans for food and the caged bird trade, and large swaths of their forest homes are cut down each year and replaced with monocultures such as palm oil. This leaves these foliage-loving birds without protection from potential predators who could easily spot a partridge family across a palm oil plantation. These birds live in social flocks of 5 to 15 individuals consisting of both adults, juveniles, and males and females of each!

Crested partridge nests are simple depressions scratched into the ground or dug out of leaf litter. The female lays 5 to 6 eggs in the depression and these hatch just over two weeks later. The chicks remain in the nest for their first week of life, receiving care and food from both their parents, but then they start to forage on their own. In some cases, the parents will split up the clutch and tend to a smaller group of babies independently, each providing for about half of the babies from their brood. It's unknown how long these birds live in the wild.

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