The Helmeted Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris)

May 01, 2011 Features / Columnists, Interesting Creatures in Guyana

The Helmeted

The Helmeted Guinea Fowl is of a family of birds that fall within the same order as the pheasants, turkeys, partridges and other game birds, which according to researchers, originated in Africa.
They are said to be a family of insect and seed-eating, ground-nesting birds that have round, small featherless heads and spangled white/grey-black plumage. Reports are that this bird species is the largest of all game birds and can measure as much as 40 to 71 centimetres in length and weigh about 1.3 kilograms. Their wings are short and rounded and the tail is also short. They are said to be able to breed in warm, fairly dry and open habitats with scattered shrubs and trees such as savannahs or farmland.
They can lay clutches of about 20 to 30 eggs in a well-hidden scrape and the females alone incubate the eggs for 26 to 28 days. The eggs are heavy shelled and the size of a small hen’s egg. They have a large yolk and many people regard them as superior to a hen’s egg. The chicks are cryptically coloured and rapid wing growth enables them to flutter onto low branches barely a week after hatching.
The chicks when hatched are very active, with bright eyes, and like the pheasant there is an indescribable timidity about them.
These guineafowl live as long as 12 years in the wild.
Guinea Fowls are often regarded as a gregarious species, forming flocks outside the breeding season typically of about 25 birds that also roost communally.
And it is said that they are particularly well-suited to consuming massive quantities of lyme disease-carrying ticks.
These birds are terrestrial, and prone to run rather than fly when alarmed. They are, however, like most short- and broad-winged birds, very agile and powerful flyers, capable of hovering and even flying backwards when necessary.
They are also well known as great runners, and can readily cover 10 kilometers and more in a day.
Interesting enough they make loud harsh calls when disturbed.
And according to reports it is not an easy task to distinguish the sex of Guineas.
Reports suggest that the males have slightly larger head appendages while the females seldom screech like the males.
It is said that once the male selects his mate, they remain steadfast companions.
Their diet consists of a variety of animal and plant food; seeds, fruits, greens, snails, spiders, worms and insects, frogs, lizards, small snakes and small mammals.
Guinea fowl are equipped with strong claws and scratch in soil for food much like domestic chickens. They have well-developed spurs and use these to great effect when fighting.
According to reports, though, they have been extensively domesticated over the years and introduced outside their natural range, for example in Southern France, the West Indies, the United States and right here in Guyana.
However, reports suggest that there are still many of this bird species on the wild where they forage in large flocks and thus making them fine game birds.
When these birds are domesticated they are kept mainly for their eggs which are considered a delicacy and have a good flavour as does their meat which is said to be very edible.
Additionally, researchers have deduced that Guinea fowl rank as one of the best destroyers of many pest insects and spend a great deal of their time looking for various insects – among them, beetles and grasshoppers. They however do very little damage to either flowers or vegetables unlike chickens that will destroy any garden they are allowed to enter.
They are also said to have another advantage over chickens in that they have long been considered the winged watchdog since they are known to raise an alarm day or night when there is an intruder be it man, bird or beast.
It is said too that they do make good companions for other domestic birds as they tend to be non-aggressive to birds of a similar size and do not carry many of the diseases and germs that chicken, turkeys, ducks and geese are susceptible to.