লাল বনমোরগ/মুরগী
Red Junglefowl
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G. gallus
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Gallus gallus
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পরিচিত নাম-জংলি মুরগী
SIZE: Village Hen.
THE RED JUNGLEFOWL (Gallus gallus): is a tropical
member of the Pheasant
family. It is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken,
with some hybridisation with the Grey Junglefowl. The Red Junglefowl was first domesticated
at least five thousand years ago in Asia, then taken around the world, and the domestic form is
kept globally as a very productive food source of both meat and eggs.
DISTRIBUTION: Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, India, Chin, Malaysia, Cambodia, Pakistan,
Maldives, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippine this Bird are available.
RANGE: The range of the wild form gives from Tamil Nadu, South India (where it has almost certainly been
diluted with cross breeding from domestic breeds) eastwards across southern China and into Malaysia,
The Philippines and Indonesia.
Junglefowl are established on several of several of the Hawaiian Islands,
but these are feral descendants of domestic chickens.
They can also be found on Christmas Island and the Marianas.
Each of these various regions had
its own subspecies. Some examples include:
- G. g. gallus Indochina
- G. g. bankiva Java
- G. g. jabouillei Vietnam
- G. g. murghi Bangladesh/India
- G. g. spadiceus Burma
- G. g. domesticus (Chicken)
SEXUAL DIMORPHISM: Male
and female
birds show very strong sexual dimorphism. Males are much larger; they
have large red plump wattles and comb
on the head and long, bright gold and bronze feathers forming a
"shawl" or "cape" over the back of the bird from the neck
to the lower back. The tail is composed of long, arching feathers that
initially look black but glitter with blue, purple and green in good light. The
female's plumage
is typical of this family of birds in being obscure and having evolved
for camouflage
as she alone looks after the eggs and chicks. She also has no fleshy wattles or
comb on the head.
During their breeding season, the male birds announce their presence
with the well known "cock-a-doodle-doo" call or crowing.
This serves both to attract likely mates and to make other male birds in the
area aware of the risk of fighting a breeding competitor. A spur on the lower
leg just behind and above the foot serves in such fighting. Their call
structure is complex and they have unique alarm calls for aerial and ground
predators to which others react appropriately.
BEHAVIOR: Males make a food-related display called 'tidbit ting', performed upon
finding food in the presence of a female. The display is composed of coaxing,
cluck-like calls and eye-catching bobbing and twitching motions of the head and
neck. During the performance, the male repeatedly picks up and drops the food
item with his beak. The display usually ends when the hen takes the food item
either from the ground or directly from the male’s beak and is associated with
copulations and more offspring. Males that produce anti-predator alarm calls
appear to be preferred by females.
They are omnivorous and feed on insects, seeds and fruits including
those that are cultivated such as those of the oil palm.
Flight in these birds is almost purely confined to reaching their
roosting areas at sunset in trees or any other high and relatively safe places
free from ground predators, and for escape from immediate danger through the
day.
FOOD: Grain, vegetables shoots,
insects, lizards etc.
NESTING: Season-principally March to May. Nest-a shallow scrape in dense
undergrowth, lined with dry leaves.Eggs-5 or 6, like the domestic fowl’s.
Cock apparently monogamous.
