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coastal hill forest

Red junglefowl Gallus gallus Family Phasianidae

Pulau Ubin is probably the only place in Singapore where you have a relatively good chance of seeing these rare birds in the wild. At Chek Jawa, large groups of 20 or more have been seen emerging from the coastal forest to forage on the beach with the outgoing tide. However, they are extremely shy and will flee into the forest at the slightest sign of danger. The Red junglefowl is the wild ancestor of domesticated chickens. The colourful male (about 80cm) has white ear patches and a white puff at the base of his tail. The drab female (about 40cm) has dull brown streaky plumage. She also has white ear patches and lacks a comb or wattles on her head. Their feet are lead-grey. The Red junglefowl cockerel's call sounds just like his domesticated cousin but his crowing is said to be more high-pitched and ends more abruptly. If alarmed, these shy birds can fly quite a distance, for example to cross rivers, and quite hight, spiralling upwards to the tree tops. In fact, they roost in trees. They prefer forest edges, but elsewhere, they are found in habitats ranging from mangroves to high mountain passes. Junglefowl Food: Like their cousins the domesticated chickens, Red jungelfowl forage on the ground for seeds, fruits and insects. They use their feet to scratch away leaf litter and peck at tit bits hidden underneath. To thrive, these birds need good ground-level cover to hide and feed in. Some have been observed feeding on insects flushed out by the movements of larger animals. Jungelfowl Chicks: Red junglefowl cockerels are territorial and maintain a harem of 3-5 females. Including juveniles, the group can be as many as 20. The male performs courtship rituals to attract a female. She builds a nest by scraping out a hollow on the ground in a dense thicket of vegetation and lays 5-6 beige to pale reddish brown eggs. She incubates the eggs alone. These hatch in about three weeks. The downy buff-coloured chicks can run around and follow their mother in a few hours. She keeps them close to cover until they are well grown. They fledge in about 12 days. Human uses: Red junglefowl are believed to have been domesticated thousands of years ago. It is said that they were first domesticated for cockfighting, later for religious ceremonies and only much later as food. Some chickens were bred for their feathers, which were used in ceremonial costumes. Like other domesticated animals, there are now many different breeds of chickens for various purposes from laying eggs, providing meat or just for their sheer beauty. Status and threats: Red junglefowl are considered vulnerable in Singapore and globally vulnerable to extinction. They are not only affected by habitat loss but also by poaching and interbreeding with domesticated chickens. They are found from India to Southern China, throughout Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Bali.

quick facts
About 80cm (male) and 40cm (female). Common in the coastal forest of Chek Jawa.

Classification:
Order Galliformes
Class Aves
Phylum Chordata

Links
What is a Chicken? on the University of Illinois Extension website: lots of information about chickens, their domestication from the Red junglefowl.
Birds on Ubin Island on the Sungei Buloh Nature Park website: brief facts about the Red junglefowl on Ubin and efforts to reintroduce it to the mainland.
Red Junglefowl on November's Pulau Ubin Stories blog: November's family used to stay on Ubin and she shares her encounters with this amazing bird.
Red Junglefowl on the Houston Zoo website: brief fact sheet with photos.
Protochicken on the Access Excellence website: the search for the ancestor the domesticated chicken narrows it to a species in Indochina with domestication estimated at 8,000 years ago.
Red junglefowl on the Feather Site website by Barry Koffler: lots of photos and links.

Other references

Strange, Morten, 2000. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Malaysia and Singapore. Periplus, Hong Kong. 398 pp.
Strange, Morten, 2000. Tropical Birds of Malaysia and Singapore. Periplus Editions, Hong Kong. 64 pp.
Wells, D.R. The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Vol.1, Non-Passerines, 1999. Academic Press, London. 648 pp.
Strange, Morten & Allan Jeyarajasingam, 1999. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Sun Tree Publishing Limited, Singapore. 258 pp.
Strange, Morten, 1998. Birds of South-East Asia: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. New Holland Publishers. 112 pp.
Lim, Kim Seng and Dana Gardner, 1997. An Illustrated Field Guide to the Birds of Singapore. Sun Tree Publishing Limited, Singapore. 226 pp.
Davidson, G. W. H. & Chew Yen Fook, 1995. A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. New Holland Publishers, UK. 144 pp.
Ng, P. K. L. & Y. C. Wee, 1994. The Singapore Red Data Book: Threatened Plants and Animals of Singapore. The Nature Society (Singapore), Singapore. 343 pp.
Madoc, G. C., 1947 (1992 4th ed). An Introduction to Malayan Birds. The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. 227 pp.

a companion website to the chek jawa guidebook website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com

a companion website to the chek jawa guidebook
website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com