Helmeted Guinea Fowl

NAME:

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

CLASS:

Aves

ORDER:

Galliformes

GENUS:

Numida

SPECIES:

meleagris

LENGTH:

18 – 21 inches

WEIGHT:

3.0- 4.0 lbs

LIFESPAN:

up to 12 years in the wild

DIET:

seeds, fruits, greens, snails, spiders, worms and insects, frogs, lizards, small snakes and small mammals

RANGE

West Africa, north-eastern Africa, southern Arabia and southern Africa (Madagascar, Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda). Breeds in Africa, mainly south of the Sahara. It has been widely introduced into the West Indies and southern France.

HABITAT

Guineafowl prefer bush, woodland and shrubbed grassland generally in moister areas.

CHARACTERISTICS

The body plumage of the Guineafowl is gray-black spangled with white with an unfeathered head. The head is decorated with a yellow or red bony knob, and red and blue patches of skin and could also have a slight wattle. The wings are short and rounded, and the tail is also short. They have strong claws used for scratching in the soil much like chickens.

BEHAVIOR

These birds can form flocks of up to hundreds of birds outside of the breeding season. Guineafowl are mainly terrestrial and are great runners although they can fly and hover.

REPRODUCTION

Pairs remain monogamous. The Helmeted Guineafowl lays a clutch of 20-30 eggs in a well-hidden lined scrape and females incubate the eggs for 26-28 days.The chicks are cryptically coloured and can flutter to low branches a week after hatching. Fledging occurs in 10 weeks.