Guinea Fowl

They are given the name by the English. They mature in a period of 8 months, weighing around 2.5 Kg. There lay around 120 eggs a year which can be hatched using ordinary hens as well as incubators.Guinea Fowls are predominantly black with small white polka dots. They are known for their ability to ward off strangers just like good watch dogs. They also keep strangers, snakes and rats from the premises. They are able to eat weeds without destroying crops. These birds are from western Africa.

The conspicuous horny "helmet" on top of their naked heads distinguishes helmeted Guinea fowl. The head region is brightly pigmented with blue, red and yellow. A band of downy feathers on the back of its head makes the Vulturine Guinea fowl look like a bald man. The birds' distinguishing characteristics are red eyes and a hackle of long, black and white striped feathers that partially cover a bright blue breast. The four species of guinea fowl are mainly confined to Africa south of the Sahara, although a population of Helmeted Guinea fowl is found north of the Sahara Desert in Morocco.

Helmeted Guinea fowl are common from Chad to the Rift Valley, south to Zaire, Kenya and Uganda in open grasslands. Vulturine Guinea fowl inhabit arid regions of Somalia in sub-Saharan Africa. They prefer the thickets and tangled scrub at the edges of lowland forests. The insect- and seed-eating, ground-nesting birds of this family resemble partridges, but with featherless heads, though both members of the genus Guttera have a distinctive black crest, and the vulturine guineafowl has a downy brown patch on the nape.