Gallus sonneratii: A JUngle Fowl From India

Grey Jungle fowl or sonneratii is a jungle fowl from India where is also habitat of red jungle fowl. The grey jungle is closely related to Ceylon Jungle fowl rather than red jungle fowl; however some studies said that the grey is the hybrid of Ceylon Jungle fowl and Red Jungle Fowl. Its habitat is South Indian. The grey often overlaps with red jungle fowl habitat. The grey lives at canopied forest with low or no grass. The grey find feed at the forest floor
The performance is not different with green jungle fowl. The cock has grey patridge and the female has grey color. The male has red comb and red wattles but it is not bigger as its cousin red jungle fowl. The female has smaller comb and wattles. The female has red legs but the female has grey legs. The male plumages are dominated gray as guess its name. The elongated neck feather is beautiful that is why people hunt it for artificial flies or artificial lure.

photo by : wikimedia
This bird is an India endemic animal which means we cannot find the wild gray jungle fowl outside India. The length of the cock could reach 80 cm, meanwhile the female is just 38 cm.In a season, a female can lay four to seven eggs. The egg is smaller than commercial breed eggs and it is pale creamy in color. Only the hen hatches the eggs and she will raise the chick alone.
Some books in my country referred that gray jungle fowl descend some landrace chicken in my country. The Sentul chicken is believed as the gray jungle fowl descendant because either Sentul or grey jungle fowl are grey in color; however, Sentul is bigger than grey jungle fowl and some people raised it as pit cock. Now, People raise it’s for delicious meat.

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