Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger) | Photos and ID

LCLeast ConcernInvertebrates

ForestLarge · 700 g

Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger), photo 1 — Photo: markusgmeiner · CC BY 4.0

Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger), photo 5 — Photo: (c) markusgmeiner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

ID tip

The head and upper neck of an adult black guinea fowl are unfeathered, revealing the pink skin. A crest of short downy feathers is on the forehead and crown, and the throat and lower neck have a scattering of downy feathers. The body and tail feathers are black with some paler speckled markings on the belly. Males have one to three spurs on their legs, while females either have none or a single short spur. Juveniles are similar, but have buff tips to the feathers on their upper parts, a speckled breast, and white belly. The beak is greenish grey and the legs greyish brown.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Black Guineafowl

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 8 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Black Guineafowl

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 4 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Gabon Cameroon Congo - Brazzaville Central African Republic

Recorded as a rare visitor in Congo - Kinshasa.

About the Black Guineafowl

The black guinea fowl is a terrestrial bird of the Numididae family found in humid forests in West-Central Africa. It is a medium-sized, black galliforme bird with a bare, orange-pink head and upper neck. As it inhabits dense, potentially inaccessible, regions of equatorial African jungle, little is known of black guinea fowl behaviour or habits. By all accounts, it is a more reclusive, secretive bird when compared to the other, more sociable guinea fowl species; i.e., researchers have been able to successfully observe and document far more information on the confident, gregarious and open grassland-dwelling helmeted guinea fowl, or even the more exotic vulturine guinea fowl.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

White-breasted GuineafowlAgelastes meleagridesIt has a black plumage with a small, bare, red head, white breast, long, black tail, greenish-brown bill, and greyish feet.

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