Red Junglefowl

লাল বনমোরগ/মুরগী

Red Junglefowl

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Phasianidae
Subfamily:	Phasianinae
Genus:	Gallus
Species:	G. gallus
Binomial name
Gallus gallus

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.