Red Junglefowl

The Red Junglefowl is a forest-dwelling gamebird of South and Southeast Asia, best known as the wild ancestor of the domestic chicken. Males are strikingly plumed, with long, lance-shaped, iridescent orange-red-to-gold hackle feathers cascading over the neck and back, a dark iridescent green-black body, and long, gracefully curved black tail sickle feathers. Females are far plainer, cloaked in cryptic brown and buff for camouflage while nesting and foraging.

• Neck and saddle hackles (male): long, narrow, pointed feathers in glossy orange-red to gold, draping over the neck, back, and rump.
• Tail (male): long, curved black sickle feathers with a green iridescent sheen, arching gracefully above the shorter true tail feathers.
• Body (male): dark, glossy green-black with a metallic sheen on the breast and underparts.
• Female plumage: cryptic brown and buff, finely mottled, with a much shorter tail and no ornamental hackles.
• Comb and wattles: bare red skin rather than feathers, present on both sexes but larger in males.

Males show the full ornamental hackle-and-sickle-tail plumage described above, developed after their first full molt, while females remain camouflaged year-round. Juveniles resemble females until males begin to acquire adult plumage. A complete molt occurs annually, refreshing the male's iridescent hackles and tail feathers.

Red Junglefowl inhabit tropical and subtropical forest, forest edge, and secondary scrub across South and Southeast Asia, from India through Indochina and into parts of Indonesia and the Philippines. The species is non-migratory, remaining resident within forest habitat year-round, and has also given rise to feral and domestic populations worldwide.

This species forages on the forest floor for seeds, fruit, and invertebrates, scratching through leaf litter in small groups. Males are territorial and vocal, giving the familiar crowing call recognizable from domestic roosters, while establishing and defending small harems of females. Nests are shallow ground scrapes hidden in dense understory vegetation. The species roosts in trees at night for safety from ground predators.