Red Junglefowl at Chek Jawa
Posted by BESG on 30 December 07, Sunday
Contributed by Margie Hall
The Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) has been breeding in Pulau Ubin since the later part of 1980s, although it was first sighted in the early 1970s. Since then the bird has been found in a number of locations on the main island, presumed to be escapees, released birds or even arriving naturally from nearby Johor, Malaysia. But Pulau Ubin is still the best place to view the Red Junglefowl, as Margie Hall’s 11th December 2007 account below testifies:
“Had a lovely view today (Monday 10th) of Red Junglefowl coming out from the coastal forest onto the rocky beach at Chek Jawa, around 5.00 pm. Rain had finally stopped and we were walking along the boardwalk and saw one mixed group of Junglefowl come out and then scuttle behind rocks. A bit further up we saw four males all together in a large patch of green seaweed. At first glance I thought they were foraging, but when I got my bins on them I realised the two in the middle were facing each other, with the feathers around their necks raised up and curved forwards, making a big “ruffle”. There was a little bit of backwards and forwards between them and then the one facing the forest drove the other one back into it. We didn’t see those two any more - the other two carried on standing around whilst we went past. Each of them had been standing behind one of the fighting birds, just like a “second” in a duel.
“Another special sighting was two otters lolloping all along the sandbar in the distance, before going into the sea. But we had barely gone down the ladder onto the sand when torrential rain arrived again and we had to beat a retreat. Still, the junglefowl and the otters made it worthwhile. Especially when, given all the early afternoon rain, it had seemed mad even to carry on with the planned trip. Thanks to the NParks guides and volunteer guide who turned out on such a wet day too.”
Images of the junglefowl by YC are from elsewhere.
Reference
Wang. L.K. & Hails, C. J. (2007) An annotated checklist of birds of Singapore. Raffles Bull. Zool. Suppl. 15:1-179.
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Categories: Species
Comment by BadAunt
Made Monday, 7 of January , 2008 at 7:08 pm
Are red jungle fowls related to bantams? These birds look exactly like the bantams we used to have when I was a kid. We used the females to hatch out eggs from the regular farm chickens, because they were so much better at ‘mothering.’ But sometimes, because I was a kid and liked birds, I also let them hatch their own eggs, and because my father was such a softy he let me take the roosters out to the farm (rather than killing them, like a ‘good’ farmer), where they ran wild. (We lived in town, but had a large back yard where we had the laying chickens, and the farm was a few kilometers away.) Poor roosters, running around in the orchard with no mates … but they got on quite well with the pigs, so that sometimes in winter you’d see a sow lying in the sun with a bantam rooster sitting behind her ear. (Keeping her brain warm?)
But my original question (before I got distracted by memories) is whether they are related, because they look exactly the same except for the lack of feather on the legs.
Comment by BadAunt
Made Monday, 7 of January , 2008 at 8:57 pm
And ALSO! This is a weird coincidence considering that I had never even heard of the red jungle fowl before today, but I was just reading an old issue of the New Yorker over dinner (passed on to me by a friend) (The New Yorker, not the dinner), and the bird got a mention in an article - which I have now found is also online.
The red jungle fowl makes its appearance near the bottom of page two.
This made me feel ridiculously clever while I was reading the article, because I didn’t just know what it was, I even knew what the bird looked like, thanks to your blog!
It turns out that research with the red jungle fowl “helped mark the beginning of a new approach to biology.”
How wonderful.
Comment by YC
Made Monday, 7 of January , 2008 at 9:41 pm
Yes, the Red Junglefowl is the ancestor of the domestic fowl. So your batams actually came from these junglefowls. Thanks for the comments that actually answered your own queries.
