Bird of the Week – Crested guinea fowl
Its Zulu name is imPangele-yehlathi meaning guinea fowl of the forest.
THE crested guinea fowl has a rattling alarm call that sounds like ‘gruk gruk grraang’.
It is found from here in Durban all the way up the East Coast and inland to sub-Saharan Africa.
The bird likes matted thickets at the edge of lowland evergreen forests and bushveld, and forming flocks of 10 to 30 birds, it often comes out onto roads and open places to feed.
It often follows monkeys to eat fallen fruit, and forages by scratching in leaf litter and debris. The crested guinea fowl likes fruit, berries, leaves, stems, seeds, insects, spiders and snails.
It is shy and wary, flies readily when disturbed and roosts communally in trees. It breeds from November to February. Its nest is a scrape in the ground lined with dry plant material.
The bird lays four to six eggs, with an incubation period of 23 days. The fledgling flutters after two weeks and flies well after five weeks.
Its Zulu name is imPangele-yehlathi meaning guinea fowl of the forest.
