The red junglefowl is a slim, shy pheasant-family bird of forest edges across South and Southeast Asia, and the wild ancestor of the chicken. In the US you can see it in Hawaii, where Polynesian settlers brought it centuries ago. Hawaiians call it moa.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Roosters have a red comb and , long golden neck feathers, and long, arching black tail feathers that shine blue and green; with the tail they can reach about 28 in (70 cm). Hens are smaller and plain brown for camouflage. Roosters weigh about 3.3 lb (1.5 kg) and hens about 2.2 lb (1 kg)—much lighter than most farm chickens.
- Voice
- Roosters crow, but the call is shorter than a farm rooster's and ends abruptly. They use different alarm calls for threats from the air and from the ground.
Look-alikes
Domestic chickenGallus gallus domesticus
Wild-type junglefowl are smaller, lighter, and warier than farm chickens, and a rooster's crow is shorter and cut off sharply. In Hawaii many free-roaming birds are hybrids, so many can't be sorted from photos.
Why they get mixed upChickens are domesticated junglefowl, and flocks mix the two.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forest edges
- Regrowing forest
- Bamboo thickets
- Farms and villages
- Range
- Native from Pakistan and India east through southern China and Southeast Asia to Indonesia and the Philippines. Introduced to Hawaii, Jamaica, Samoa, Australia, and other places. In Hawaii it's found on several of the main islands, including Kauai.
- Preferred conditions
- Prefers disturbed places—forest edges, regrowth after burning or clearing, and areas near people—over deep, unbroken forest.
Behavior
- Diet
- Scratches the ground for fallen fruit, seeds, leaves, and insects such as termites. Chicks eat mostly insects and earthworms.
- Activity
- Spends most of its time on the ground and flies mainly to reach a roost at sunset or to escape danger.
- Social life
- Lives in small flocks of one or a few roosters with several hens. A rooster courts hens by picking up and dropping bits of food.
Life cycle
- Breeding season
- In much of its native range it nests in the dry season.
- Incubation
- 21 days
- Fledging
- The hen raises the chicks alone. Chicks can fly at about 4–5 weeks and are on their own at about 12 weeks.
- Time to maturity
- About 5 months
Name and classification
- About the name
- Five wild subspecies are recognized, from India to Java. The domestic chicken is treated as a form of this species (Gallus gallus domesticus), though some systems list it as a separate species, Gallus domesticus.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
- Threats
- Interbreeding with free-ranging farm chickens at forest edges threatens pure wild populations. Habitat loss and hunting also take a toll.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Hawaiians raised moa for food, and across Polynesia junglefowl feathers were used in royal feather cloaks.
- Where and when chickens were first domesticated is still debated; a large 2020 genome study pointed to Southeast Asia and the Burmese red junglefowl, with later mixing with other junglefowl.
More species to explore
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