Vulturine Guineafowl
Acryllium vulturinum (GR Gray, 1840)
Range: Northeast Africa, from southern Ethiopia into northern Tanzania
Habitat: Dry Sparsely-Wooded Grasslands
Diet: Seeds, Roots, Tubers, Small Invertebrates, Small Vertebrates
Social Grouping: Flocks up to 25
Reproduction: Lays 4-8 (possibly up to 18) cream-colored eggs in a grass-lined scrape on the ground. Multiple hens may share a nest and share incubation duties. Incubation 28 days. Chicks are precocial and fledge at 10 weeks, sexually mature at 2 years
Lifespan: 15 Years
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern
- Largest of the guineafowl species. Measures 61-71 centimeters long, with a round body and small head. Weigh 1-1.6 kilograms. Males are slightly larger than the females. Wings, neck, legs, and tail are longer than those of other guineafowl species
- Sexes look alike. Body plumage is black with fine white speckles, except for the breast, which is bright blue. The face and neck are bare; the face is blue, darkening to black, with a small ruff of brownish feathers at the back of the neck. There is a cape of long, glossy blue and white feathers around the neck. Juveniles similar to adults, but duller
- Very terrestrial, if confronted with danger with run rather than fly (speeds up to 35 kilometers per hour). Roosts in trees at night for safety
- Males can be very aggressive not only to one another (sometimes fatally so) but to females; even though the sexes look alike, they can often be distinguished by behavior and posture
- Genus name translates to "small peak," (absent the crest seen in many guineafowl), species name means "vulture-like" in reference to naked head and neck
- Hunted locally for food, but population is considered secure in wild
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