Helmetted Guinea Fowl and Swainson's Spurfowl

Last week Skabenga barked quite incessantly one night. He's not normally a noisy dog, only giving voice when there is something threatening out there.

Although I shushed him several times, he'd jump up run to the fence at the bottom of the garden and bark like mad. 

The next morning, Grant called me and pointed to the nearby ESKOM pylons. A flock of guinea fowl was roosting on top of the poles and wires. 

 Helmetted Guinea Fowl roosting on top of electricity pylons just beyond the boundary fence 

The helmeted guineafowl is a large (53–58 cm) bird with a round body and small head. They weigh about 1.3 kg. The body plumage is gray-black spangled with white. Like other guineafowl, this species has an unfeathered head, in this case decorated with a dull yellow or reddish bony knob, and red and blue patches of skin. The wings are short and rounded, and the tail is also short. 

Returning from my hike last Tuesday, Grant stopped for me to photograph spurfowl before I opened the gate they were sitting on. 

Swainson's Spurfowl

Chicken-sized, brownish francolins and spurfowls are not on the endangered list. Here in the Drakensberg Mountains, I have seen more Swainson's Spurfowl in a season than all the years we lived in the Free State.

Spurfowl are vaguely similar in size and build, closer examination quickly divides them up into several different species. The Swainson’s spurfowl distinguishes itself from its relatives by being brown overall, streaked with black, its bill dark above, red below; its face and throat red; its legs black. Sexes are alike in plumage, although the males are bigger than the females.

I'm linking to Wild Bird Wednesday here

HAPPY WEDNESDAY TO YOU ALL!