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Chukars
Emu
Guinea Fowl
Peafowl - peacocks and peahens
Pheasants
Quail
This page is about birds that do not fit into my other bird-related pages. It is mostly for photos that I have and ones that were sent to me.
Chukars are pretty patridges that are often sold along with other "game birds" in the US. Hunters release them and then hunt them down. I have never had any myself.
Emu are large, flightless birds from Australia. They are slightly smaller than ostriches. Like ostriches, the male is the one who incubates the eggs, often from multiple females. With ostriches, the female will also help incubate but not with emus where the male does all the work. In the 1990's, for a while there was an emu craze where people were told they could become rich by raising them for meat and oil.
Here is a photo from a local farm on 4/26/07 of an emu:
Emu
Guinea fowl are from Africa. They are like African chickens. The males are rather loud and are sometimes used as "guard dogs." The females are guinea hens but often, the entire species is called guinea hens. They come in a wide variety of colors now that are very beautiful. Guineas are often added to a yard to eat insects and arachnids such as ticks. Baby guinea fowl are called keets.
Here is a photo I took at the zoo
on 6/7/06 of a standard colored guinea fowl.
Guinea fowl
The Feather Site - guinea fowl page. It includes tons of photos!
I took these two photos on 8/8/07 at our local fair in a cage:
One Guinea Fowl - rear view
Two Guinea Fowl - side view. There is a
chicken in the back right of the photo too.
Crystal sent these photos on 2/1/08 of her guinea fowl. They had been sold to her as
"turkeys!":
Standard guinea fowl - named Mr. T
White guinea fowl - named Hoss
Peafowl come from India. Male peafowl are peacocks. Most people recognize peacocks for their massive tail displays. Female peafowl are peahens. Peafowl are one of the most beautiful species of birds. They come in many different colors now. Peafowl are also one of the more expensive birds, running about $100 each.
The Feather Site - page on peacocks. Includes lots of photos!!
Peacock photos below - sort them out!
Joyce sent these four photos of her wild turkeys and their run on 5/21/06. The pen is 75' x 12' in
size and contains two adult male wild turkeys, two adult female wild turkeys, an adult peacock,
and the offspring of the wild turkeys (five eggs hatched via natural incubation on 5/21/06).
There seem to be some white birds in there too? The photos are a little blurry.
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
I took these photos of peacocks at Land of the
Little Horses on 7/29/07. Unfortunately, the first two are through fencing. For the last one, I
stuck the camera through the fence and got a good photo. The female is not a standard peacock.
She may be the green variety or something. I think the male is not standard either. If you know,
please contact me so I can update it here.
Peacock
Peahen
Peahen
I took these photos at the National
Zoo on 9/14/07:
Female peacock
Male peacock
When I answered someone's e-mail about peafowl on 9/4/07, I found these web pages on
peafowl:
The Peacock Information Center
Raising Peafowl is Easy - one person's
blog
The Wild Peacock Page
Peafowl
On 9/16/07, Susan in Canada sent these photos of her baby male turkey poult that was hatched by
a peahen. She said, "Last year a peahen flew onto my 5 acre property and gradually adopted my
horses, dogs, cats, chickens and myself. We were honoured. After conveying the message that
she seriously wanted to sit her two infertile eggs, I contacted a neighbor who is a major birder
and caretaker of many large fowl. Two fertilized turkey eggs and exactly 28 days later, two
lovely chicks emerged. One thrived, the other withered and died on Day 5." Here are just the
photos that also show the peahen (all the photos are on my turkey
photo page).
Domestic turkey poult (6 weeks old) and
mother peahen
Two domestic turkey poults (a few days old)
and mother peahen
On 10/6/07, Susan sent newer photos of her baby male turkey poult with its "mommy"
peahen.
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
On 1/27/08, Susan sent these photos of her now adult five month old male turkey ("Helen") and
its mother peahen (Renee).
Domestic turkey and mother peahen and a
chicken
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a bunch of chickens
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a chicken
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
two chickens
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a bunch of chickens
Pheasants are mostly native to Europe and Asia. There are many gorgeous species of these medium-sized birds. The ring-necked pheasant is the one most commonly bought/sold in the USA as "game birds." They are released and then hunted. Wild populations have established themselves in parts of the United States.
Back in the last 1980's, we bought about a dozen baby pheasant. Three were a few days older and killed the rest. After we released them, we never saw them again.
Laurie sent these photos of ringneck pheasants on 5/18/07:
Pair of ringneck pheasants - male on the
left
Pair of ringneck pheasants - male on the left,
close-up
Allandoo Pheasantry - some pretty pheasant photos, breeders in Scotland; link request
I took these photos of pheasants at Land of the
Little Horses on 7/29/07. I compared my photos to ones from The Feather Site so
hopefully I got the identifications correct.
Reeve's pheasants - male top, female
bottom
Reeve's pheasants - male right, female
left
Reeve's pheasants - male top, female bottom.
Are you getting the idea that I liked them!
Golden pheasants - male left; male and
female to the right in another cage. I am the least sure about these identifications so feel free to
correct me.
Silver pheasant - male
I took these photos at the National
Zoo on 9/14/07:
Male golden pheasant - gorgeous
too except I photographed his rump!
Pair of golden pheasants - this
time I got his front side. Can you find the female? He was protecting the females from us and
the peacocks.
On 11/9/07, we went to the Catoctin zoo. Here are two
pheasant photos from that page of photos:
Male golden pheasant
Male Swinhoe's
pheasant
Quail are small, beautiful birds. The bobwhite quail and California quail are two species native to the United States. Button quail from Asia are often kept as pets. They are small and come in many colors. They are quite prolific breeders. In Europe, they like to eat quail.
Back in the late 1980's, twice we bought about a dozen quail. After a few weeks, we released them. When we moved to our land in 1977, we had the whistling male bobwhite quail around the property. By the time we released these batches, there were none around. After release, we never saw or heard any quail again. Quail prefer fields like we had in 1977 and not mature forest as we have today (2007).
Laurie sent this photo of a California quail on 5/18/07:
California quail
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Copyright 1997-2009 Robyn Rhudy
