Africa birds: Helmeted Guineafowl

I thought I would add the Helmeted guineafowl today...they are common around us and as tough as nails. This is a young one, "helmet" still not fully developed.

They usually are found in groups. Helmet on the front one is fully developed.

Nice to see them as they should be, rather than as poultry on a farm!

Resin

This is the Orange River White-eye, which if you compare to an earlier pic I posted of the cape white-eye differs in that they have a peach colour on the sides. They are so tough to "snap". They are constantly on the move.

This not so good photo is a bit closer....looking at the leaves, you can sort of see how smaller these are.

Thanks Resin...they sleep in a big old tree in the fields...they are a bit puffy, because it was -5 degree C earlier this morning...

That must be abnormally cold for you? The coldest I got in the whole of last winter was -7°C, and I'm at 55°N latitude

Resin

Very nice Little! Thanks so much for posting these!

yeah...I though of changing my zone! haha...here it goes to -4 and where I live within is a little higher, so we go down to
-1 or 2 at most...the past week(s) there were some big fronts down at the Cape, lots of snow, rain, flooding, etc, we do not get winter rainfall, but we get the cold. Our range for the past week has been -6 to 10C (midday). This will change up again, to 0,1,2C in the morning. Certainly we are not use to very cold, especially when a little breeze picks up. Chill factor increases a lot.......

I thought you may find the white-eye (Orange-river) interesting...one not seen otherwise. If you know the Cape version, as I do, coming from there originally, you can overlook this one, that peach colour is faint...

Nice photos, Little_Things. I remember the Perth Zoo had a whole flock of guinea fowl. Don't know if there are any there now. Beautiful birds. As are the little White Eyes.

Your weather intrigues me. Sounds very cold. What elevation are you at and when is your wet season? We're only 2 or 3 degrees latitude farther south than you, although, we are coastal and now is our wettest period.

Margaret, we are at +/-1450 m, and we are a summer rainfall region (Highveld). It rains from Nov to March (mainly Feb) with Thunderstorms - from about 3pm - 6pm and then all over. In winter it gets nice and cold, but no rain. I have experienced some light snow the last 2 years in August, which was interesting.

We are about 4.5 hours drive from Johannesburg and 10 hours from Cape Town. Closest beach about 6.5 hours drive.

Your White Eye looks very much like our Vireo or Kinglet, and I had no idea Guinea's were not farm fowl! What an education we get here at DG! Thanks!

When I was a child in Michigan, the next door neighbor had a flock of guinea-fowl, which were allowed to run wild. I have many fond memories of the hens with broods of chicks feeding in our fields. In early summer, the hens roamed the fields, with large broods of chicks. Only a few chicks survived from each brood, most were picked off by predators.
Gary

Thanks everyone, Tigerlily...I have never known G_fowl other than in the wild. They are tough and must be very muscular, because they are known to fly up anf being struck by cars, I have seen this myself, getting up and running away. Especially on windscreens.

Grasmussen, what you describe is natural here....we rarely stop and watch them, but they are actually very interesting to watch, especially when they are feeding, one would find something and you will see the rest charging in the direction where the "special" thing (food) were found. They are found on most farms (wild) and they do hang around...they also give away many predators, when they see them, with their unique "cry". They are so alert, when I took these photo's, as long as I kept going, they went on with their business, but stop, and they are off on a light "trot", just keeping a safe distance. This group was about 20-30 birds.