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When you encounter a flock of wild guineafowl anywhere from Senegal to South Africa, they will usually be running, squawking as they go, obviously panic-stricken about something. Guineafowl are funny-looking birds, and their actions and calls are even funnier. These are calls of alarm, warning the flock of the approach of a potential predator. In Africa, guineafowl are favored prey of wild cats and Martial Eagles, so they need to be alert!
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Frantic Fowl from Guinea
Written by Dennis Paulson
This is BirdNote!
[Helmeted Guineafowl calls]
These calls are familiar sounds in many an American farmyard, but they are also familiar all across Africa, where the Helmeted Guineafowl is native. When you encounter a flock of wild guineafowl anywhere from Senegal to South Africa, they will usually be running, squawking as they go, obviously panic-stricken about something. Guineafowl are funny-looking birds, and their actions and calls are even funnier.
[Helmeted Guineafowl calls]
These are calls of alarm, warning all members of the flock of the approach of a potential predator. In Africa, guineafowl are favored prey of wild cats and Martial Eagles, so they need to be alert. Because they react to the presence of strangers, guineafowl are often used as burglar alarms on farms. [Helmeted Guineafowl calls]
Guineafowl are related to chickens and pheasants, and like them, they lay a lot of eggs, up to a dozen in a nest. The chicks are cute balls of fluff, but they rapidly grow into gawky juveniles and can breed at the surprisingly young age of seven months. Guineafowl are easily domesticated but always remain flighty and squawky—birds in a panic. [Helmeted Guineafowl calls]
Get a good look at a guineafowl, when you come to our web site BirdNote.org. And please drop us a line while you’re there, to tell us what you think about the show.
I’m Frank Corrado.
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Call of the Helmeted Guineafowl provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by A.L. Priori.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org August 2010
ID# 082407HEGFKPLU HEGF-01
