Abstract
The most nearly beautiful member
of a family of bizarre, though strikingly
plumaged birds, Vulturines are
the largest member of the group,
which are distributed over most of
Africa south of the Sahara, with a
small, possibly introduced, population
of Helmeted Guineafowl (Numeida
meleagris sabyi) in Morroco.
Certainly the Vulturine is the most
handsomely plumaged guineafowl
with cobalt-blue, black and white
striped, elongated neck feathers,
lilac wing stripe and with a naked,
powder-blue head skimpily adorned
with a small naped patch of deep maroon
stubble. The voice is usually a
quiet, murmuring conversation of
"cheeps" but, once in a while, the
birds will call with a shrill, interrogative
or complaining series of
screeches. The eggs are pale ivory
mottled with fine speckled brown
spots. Incubation takes approximately
24 days and birds attain their adult
plumage at about six months. They
are sexually mature at two years.
Relatively simple to maintain on an
ordinary gamebird diet, most successful
breeders almost invariably supplement
their feed with high protein
items such as meat, eggs or nuts.
These birds are hardy but are very susceptible
to intestinal parasites. It will
behoove the breeder to perform periodic
fecal analysis and treat when
necessary.
We have a young trio at the aviary
who have yet to breed for us, even
though the male goes through his
high-stepping courtship routine quite
frequently.
The most successful breeders I've
worked with were a pair we had at
"Bright Meadows" in Sebastopol, California.
There, our pair had quite a
large pen about 25 feet square, initially
well grassed and planted (eventually
the birds ate everything edible
within reach). We had a magnificent
male and a hen you would not give 10
cents for (although we paid almost
$300). We purchased her sight unseen
and felt we'd been taken for a ride
when we got her out of her box. Toenails
were missing, she had ruffled
plumage and was lethargic; we'd have
sent her back if we thought she would
have survived the journey.
However, survive she did and,
although she always looked wretched,
she gave us 54 chicks in the first year.
She went on to lay in every month of
the year, sometimes laying as many as
three eggs in 48 hours, and produced
over 100 eggs within 12 months. She
eventually started eating her own eggs
and it became quite a challenge to
rescue them before she got to them.
Luckily, she usually laid early in the
evening and would call incessantly for
a short while before she produced.
Her nest was in a clump of New
Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) and I
could clearly see her from the pathway.
The trick was to get into the aviary
and snatch the egg away in the
three or four seconds it took her to
recover from laying (the "thank God
that's over" phase), before she could
turn around and have a really fresh
dinner. Not being stupid, she got wise
to me and would parade around her
nest for an hour or more sometimes,
in the hope that I would leave and she
could eat. If I tried to fool her and
move any distance at all, she could
pop that egg out in seconds flat and
scramble it before I could get back.
The diet of this pair was supplemented
with raw hamburger, hardboiled
egg, sunflower seed and peanuts
- small items fed at intervals
throughout the day. Feeding the
"good stuff' in this way also ensured
that the birds became tame very
quickly and could be checked with
ease. Remarkable and distinctive,
these birds can really be recommended
to the experienced aviculturist
who is looking for something...