Helmeted Guineafowl

Numida meleagris

Helmeted Guineafowl have been introduced to many parts of the world, but are native throughout much of the African continent. Known for their excellent pest control abilities, they hunt insects, ticks, and other small animals.These birds are raised as livestock for their meat and eggs but are also kept as pets. Their preferred habitat is mainly in open country, ranging from forest edge through savanna woodlands to thorn scrub, cultivated farmlands, plantations, steppe and subdeserts.

Nine subspecies are currently recognized.

• N. m. sabyi live (or lived, possibly extinct) in NW Morocco. 
• N. m. galeatus [West African Guineafowl] lives in West Africa east to southern Chad, northern Angola and Congo.
• N. m. meleagris [Helmeted Guineafowl] lives in eastern Chad, east to Ethiopia, and south to northern Congo, Uganda and Kenya.
• N. m. somaliensis lives in southeastern Ethiopia and western Somalia.
• N. m. reichenowi [Reichenow’s Guineafowl] lives in Kenya south to Tanzania.
• N. m. mitratus [Tufted Guineafowl] lives in western & eastern Tanzania south to Mozambique, and west through Zambia and Zimbabwe to northeastern Botswana and South Africa, Zanzibar and Tumbatu Island.
• N. m. marungensis lives in the southern Congo Basin south to Angola, and east in Zambezi Basin to northern Zambia in the Luangwa Valley.
• N. m. papillosus lives in southern Angola to Namibia and Botswana.
• N. m. coronatus lives in eastern South Africa in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and Swaziland.

I’ve met these birds while traveling though southern Africa, as well as those domesticated versions in Arizona and Oregon.