Look what appeared at the bottom end of the street outside our house.
A Helmeted Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris) mom with her three little keets.
An overload of cuteness, as the mom was teaching the little ones how to do scrub foraging. So, the mom would scratch and scrape the dead leaves in a search for worms, and the little ones would do the same. We watched them for a while in case they found something, but no luck for them. But there is a sad side to this story, as there were only three little guinea keets. They normally have 12-13 keets, and so all of the others were taken by predators.
I know who the major culprits were, as three Harrier Hawks showed up here lately, and one just has to hear the battle call of the crows to escort the hawks away from their territory. I hear the call of the crows outside, but by the time I get out with my camera they are gone. The hawks were there to get the keets and on some days they would sneak in to get the keets. A friend also called me and sent a photo of an owl that he took on his mobile phone. Owls are also keet predators at night, and now the owl is no more around.
And of course, the dad was also hanging around.
Look how the mom above kept an eye on me.
Guinea fowl (/ˈɡɪnifaʊl/) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the Cracidae (chachalacas, guans, and curassows) and before the Odontophoridae (New World quail). An Eocene fossil lineage Telecrex has been associated with guinea fowl.
Telecrex inhabited Mongolia, and may have given rise to the oldest of the true phasianids, such as blood pheasants and eared pheasants, which evolved into high-altitude, montane-adapted species with the rise of the Tibetan Plateau. While modern guinea fowl species are endemic to Africa, the helmeted guinea fowl has been introduced as a domesticated bird widely elsewhere.
In this photo above, I thought that they had found something, as all of them concentrated on the same spot, but no nothing.
Early mornings and late afternoons are the best times to get wild birds here at home, as early means that they want to eat to gather strength for the day, and late means that they want a good sleep with full tummies.
Here below were some other ones at the same time as the guinea fowls.
This little guy below is a juvenile Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus). I have shown you this guy in a post a while ago, and how I know it is a juvenile is that you can see a faint red color on his chest, and there is a touch of blue on his shoulder. I cannot wait for him to grow up, as he will turn out just as beautiful as his father. His colors will also turn iridescent, and the two bright yellow spots are a highlight when he opens his wings. The tail is also yellow and blue, and I have told you many times that they are the best singers of all the sunbirds, and also the smallest.
Finally, Robbie landed, took a sip, and then scooted. A pity, as I thought he was going to take a bath.
Our area has an abundance of wild birds that invaded the towns, and there is not a day that there is not one or another wild bird in the roads and the trees. Some people even have signs on their cars to say, "I am a bird watcher, and I stop anywhere". I should also get myself a sticker like that, as many times people think I am taking photos of their houses and once or twice they would even approach me suspiciously until I show them the bird or birds on my camera screen. But I cannot blame them, as things are really becoming dicey here lately.
Keep an eye out for my posts about the two-day trip to another town for my wife's birthday.
Hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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