Truly African Birds Found in South Africa

[Klipspringer]

Guineafowl Family Numididae 6 species in the world, 2 species in South Africa

Agelastes
White-breasted Guineafowl Agelastes meleagrides AF : Sierra Leone to Ghana


Black Guineafowl Agelastes niger AF : se Nigeria to c DR Congo


Numida
Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris AF : widespread
N. m. sabyi nw Morocco
N. m. galeatus w Africa to s Chad and n Angola
N. m. meleagris e Chad to w Ethiopia, n Kenya, Uganda and n DR Congo
N. m. somaliensis ne Ethiopia and Somalia
N. m. reichenowi Kenya to c Tanzania
N. m. mitratus Tanzania to Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana
N. m. marungensis s DR Congo to w Angola and Zambia
N. m. papillosus Botswana and Namibia
N. m. coronatus e South Africa


Guttera
Plumed Guineafowl Guttera plumifera AF : wc

G. p. plumifera s Cameroon to n Angola
G. p. schubotzi n, e DR Congo

Crested Guineafowl Guttera pucherani AF : w, c, e, se
G. p. pucherani sw Somalia to c Tanzania, Zanzibar and Tumbatu I.
G. p. verreauxi Guinea-Bissau to w Kenya, Zambia and Angola
G. p. sclateri nw Cameroon
G. p. barbata se Tanzania to n Mozambique and Malawi
G. p. edouardi e Zambia to s Mozambique and South Africa

Acryllium
Vulturine Guineafowl Acryllium vulturinum AF : Ethiopia and Somalia to Tanzania


The Guineafowls further north look even more spectacular than the Southern ones.

I wonder how the different supspecies of the Helmeted Guineafowl look different.
Can we get some photos, please? Maybe also from Botswana and Namibia? Or anything from East Africa?

[Klipspringer]

South Africa, Rietvlei Numida meleagris coronatus

Namibia, Etosha Numida meleagris papillosus

[Lisbeth]

Sorry! I have nothing exotic, only same as yours but from Kirstenbosch Gardens

[Klipspringer]

Sorry! I have nothing exotic, only same as yours but from Kirstenbosch Gardens

Your photo is still interesting, Lisbeth. It is likely that the adult bird is not the parent of the chick.

Guineafowls have an interesting social structure.
Here a bit from an observation of a flock (Social organization of a flock of Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, South Africa. J. H. VAN NIEKERK)

The study flock was not a number of Helmeted Guineafowl that associated randomly. The members remained around the dominant male and followed him as he initiated foraging. Although a pecking order could be established among males, the frequency of agonistic actions was very low, which suggests that agonistic interactions are limited to ensure cohesion. The function of the pecking order was not to dispel adult members from the flock but simply to maintain a rank hierarchy. The second highest ranking male took center stage with the rest of the flock associated around him in order to maintain the cohesive nature of the flock when the dominant male and his female left to breed. This alternate responsibility was important to prevent eviction from the territory or a take-over from neighboring dominant males. The two high ranking males foraged away from the females during the non-breeding season, but still in the same flock, in order to repel conspecific intruders, but during the breeding season they spent more time with their females (Table 3). In other words, it was a monogamous mating system.
No polygamy or promiscuity was recorded; that is, the two high ranking males did not flirt with each other’s females or flirt with females that joined from neighboring flocks. Prolonged squabbles for adult females could lead to flock instability. There was no evidence of sequential mate selection.
On arrival of parents and chicks, the highest ranking male spent more time with his chicks than the mother, who spent relatively little time with her
chicks (Table 4). This is ascribed to the females foraging actively to restore bodily condition after breeding (Crowe and Elbin, 1987). During this time, the adult non-breeding male and female spent more time with the chicks of the dominant male than their own mother did (Table 4). Since the history of the flock was not known, these helpers could be offspring from a previous year since they were at least two years old when observations started. In the Constantia study, it was demonstrated that offspring from a previous year helped their mother with incubation.
The small social spread during the brooding stage illustrates that most members form a close-knit unit to protect the chicks. It could be argued that formation of a cluster is a response to an urge to associate closely when predators close in, because chicks are easy prey (Fig. 1). However, the fact that all adults 1) helped to distract predators, 2) emitted soft “swe swe swe” contact calls and 3) associated closely with the chicks, illustrates that co-operative nurturing indeed took place.

[Lisbeth]

Interesting! Actually I have another pic taken at the same time, same place

[Lisbeth]

There is a big difference from one species to another in the ways of family interaction.

[Klipspringer]

Interesting is the male leadership in a flock.

I don't know about leadship in bird flocks, maybe it's always males

[Richprins]

Who knew there were so many different guinea fowl!

q.jpg (95.81 KiB) Viewed 631 times

[Klipspringer]

You must tell us what it is, where and when it was, what it was doing and about the flock

[Richprins]

It was a crested guineafowl at Punda Maria, walking by itself!