This gamebird occurs patchily from West Africa through the moister forests, especially forest edges, to a few areas in north-eastern South Africa, north-west Zimbabwe; in Namibia it is known from a few records in the eastern Zambezi region, most recently (2014) caught on a camera trap in the State Forestry on the Zambian border. It occupies a tiny area of 1,600 km2 in Namibia, of which 31% occurs in protected areas of Mudumu National Park.