Grey Junglefowl

The grey junglefowl, or Sonnerat's junglefowl, is one of the wild ancestors of the domestic chicken. The male has a black cape with ochre spots and finely patterned grey body plumage, and his long, dark neck feathers end in a small, hard yellowish plate, which makes them prized for tying artificial fishing flies. The central tail feathers are long and sickle-shaped. Males have red combs and wattles, less developed than in the red junglefowl, and males moult their bright neck feathers into an eclipse plumage in summer (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is endemic to India and found mainly in the peninsula, extending north into Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and southern Rajasthan. The males' loud, distinctive calls are heard at dawn and dusk, and, unlike the red junglefowl, the male does not flap his wings before calling. Birds forage in small groups and fly into trees to roost or escape predators. They breed from February to May, laying four to seven eggs in a scrape that hatch in about 21 days. SoIB 2023 rates the species a Low conservation priority and gives an inconclusive long-term trend (about −29%) and a Large range (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).