The Green Junglefowl

The Green Junglefowl (Gallus varius) photo by NaturePixels.org and BESG

There are four living species of the genus Gallus.  The most familiar (by a ridiculously vast margin) is Gallus gallus—the red junglefowl, aka the chicken! Yet there are some other sorts of junglefowl still out there living in the primordial jungle.  My favorite (for purely aesthetic reasons) is the green junglefowl (Gallus varius), also known as the Javan junglefowl, the forktail or the green Javanese junglefowl.  Like the red junglefowl, the green junglefowl lives in tropical and semitropical forests and scrubland.  It is an omnivore, living largely on seeds, grain, and fruits which it supplements with whatever insects, arthropods, lizards, snakes, and tiny rodents it can catch.

Male Green Junglefowl (Photo by Jeff Whitlock of “The Online Zoo” http://www.theonlinezoo.com)

The green junglefowl lives in Indonesia on the islands of Java, Bali, Lombok, Komodo, Flores, and Rinca (and on some smaller islands near to these large landmasses).   The birds live in small flocks of two to five.  Usually a single male lives with a few females which he protects with his sharp spurs and fast beak (although these are poor protection against Komodo dragons and tigers…to say nothing of Indonesian humans).  At day the junglefowl forage through the forests.  At night they roost about 15 feet up in small trees or bamboo.  They are slightly better at flying then the red junglefown of South Asia.  Males fight (sometimes to the death) over hens.

(photo via the featured creature)

At first the common name would seem to be a misnomer.  The male junglefowl does not look green, but rather black with orange wings, gold highlights, and a dazzling superman-colored head of bright red, yellow and blue(!).  Yet close up, it becomes apparent that, like the ocellated turkey and the Cayuga duck, the green junglefowl has iridescent feathers which are many colors in different light—but mainly dark glistening green.   Aviary owners and exotic bird enthusiasts are quite familiar with the green junglefowl because of its dazzling appearance and its unique mating call “Cock-a-blargle-ack!”

Male and female green junglefowl (Gallus varius)

These birds of the Indonesian jungle are shockingly beautiful and yet also oddly reptilian and alien. The undomesticated chickens are a reminder of just how strange our familiar farm animals really are. Although, in some ways the green junglefowl are swiftly becoming green chickens.  They keep interbreeding with domestic chickens to form a peculiar hybrid—the bekisar.