Subject: Re: strange bird sighting
Date: Sep 4 23:29:42 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets

Mickey Gibson writes:

>Have you checked out the South African Rednecked Francolin?

Ha! Great minds think alike! 'Francolinus' was the *first* family I thought
of before realising the description was more like guineafowl (Numida).
Doublechecked in Ian Sinclair's Field Guide to the Birds of South Africa. Yup.

>>"The bird had a chicken like head with a red beak and red cheek patches.

Shared.

>>It
>>was quite large almost the size of a goose.

The right size for guineafowl (56 cm) whereas the francolin is teal-sized
(36 cm).

>>It had a strange shape, almost
>>like a raccoon, or an armadillo, really humped.

More characteristic of guineafowl than francolin, but the difference isn't
qualitative.

>>It was a uniform grey colour
>>with tiny white spots that were slightly larger on the sides.

Whereas the francolin has streaked black and white underparts with brown
wings, the streaks being larger and coarser on the lower belly and flanks,
the guineafowl is comprehensively white-spotted on a slate-grey ground on
wings and body. The spots are densely packed from the neck down, tiny on
wings and upper breast, grading to slightly larger on lower flanks and
belly, giving a strange pointillist look, like a 60's Op-Art painting.

>The neck was
>chickenish too and sloped down to a light brown area just at the base of the
>neck.

Unlike francolin on which a white upper neck abruptly changes to black and
white streaking, but like guineafowl.

>The legs were thick and grey.

Red on the francolin, thick and grey on the guineafowl.

And the fact that Ingrid didn't mention a casque, or bony crest, on this
bird's head indicates it was an immature bird.

I don't know whether they're still there, but the Vancouver (BC) Zoo used to
have a few free-run Helmeted Guineafowl pottering around with the peacocks
and panhandling the tourists.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net