Galliformes
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| Galliformes | ||||||||
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 Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo
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Megapodiidae |
Galliformes is an order of birds containing turkeys, grouse, chickens, quails, and pheasants. About 256 species are found worldwide.
These birds vary in size from the diminutive Asian Blue Quail (Coturnix chinensis) at 12.5 centimetres (5 in) long and weighing 28 to 40 grams (1 to 1.4 oz) to the largest extant Galliform species, the North American Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), wild specimens of which may weigh as much as 14 kilograms (about 30.5 lb) and may exceed 120 centimetres (47 in).
The Galliform bird species with the largest wing-span is most likely the Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus). Most Galliform genera are large in body with thick necks and moderately long legs and with rounded wings. Grouse, pheasants, francolins, and partridges are typical in their outwardly corpulent silhouettes.
Adult male Galliform birds have a sharp horny spur on the back of each leg, which they use for fighting.
Some Galliformes are adapted to grassland habitats and these genera are remarkable for their long, thin necks, long legs and large, wide wings. Thus Wild Turkey, Crested Fireback Pheasant, typical peafowl and Vulturine Guineafowl are outwardly similar in their convergent body types.
Vegetarian and slightly omnivorous genera are typically stoutly built and have short thick bills primarily adapted for foraging on the ground for rootlets or the consumption of other plant material such as heather shoots. The young birds will also take insects.
Peafowl, junglefowl and most of the sub-tropical pheasant genera have very different nutritional requirements from typical Palearctic genera. The Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus) has been observed digging in the rotting wood of deadfall in a similar manner to woodpeckers, even bracing itself with aid of its squared tail.
The Cheer Pheasant (Catreus wallichi), Crested Argus (Rheinardia ocellata), the enigmatic Crested Wood Partridge (Rollulus roulroul) and the Crested Guineafowl (Guttera pucherani) are similar ecologically to the Himalayan Monal in that they too forage in rotting wood for termites, ant and beetle larvae, molluscs, crustaceans and the nests of rodents.
Typical peafowl (Pavo), most of the so-called peacock-pheasants (Polyplectron), the Bulwer's Pheasant (Lophura bulweri), the ruffed pheasants (Chrysolophus) and the hill partridges (Arborophila) have narrow, relatively delicate bills, poorly suited for digging. These Galliform genera prefer instead to capture live insects in leaf litter, in sand and in shallow pools or along stream banks. These genera are also outwardly similar in that they each have exceptionally long, delicate legs and toes and the tendency to frequent seasonally wet habitats to forage, especially during chick-rearing.
The Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae), Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus/superspecies complex), Bulwer's Pheasant and the Crestless Fireback (Lophura erythrophthalma) are notable for their aptitude to forage for crustaceans such as crayfish and other aquatic small animals in shallow streams and amongst rushes in much the same manner as some members of the rail family (Rallidae).
The tragopans (Tragopan), Mikado Pheasant and several species of grouse and ptarmigan are exceptional in their largely vegetarian and arboreal foraging habitats. But many species of moderate altitudes — for example the long-tailed pheasants of the genus Syrmaticus — find a great deal of their daily nutrtional reqirements in the tree canopies especially during the snowy and rainy periods when foraging on the ground is dangerous and less than fruitful for a variety of reasons. The Great Argus and Crested Argus may do most of their foraging during rainy months in the canopy of the jungle as well.
Although members of the Syrmaticus are capable of subsisting almost entirely on vegetarian materials for months at a time, this is not true for many of the subtropical genera. For example, the two Argus genera are known to forage on slugs, snails, ants and amphibians to the exclusion of plant material. How they forage in the forest canopy during the rainy months is unknown but is a compelling issue for future investigations.
Most of these birds are more or less resident, but some of the smaller temperate species (such as quail) do migrate over considerable distances. Altitudinal migration is evidently quite common amongst montane species and a few species of subtropical and near Arctic regions must reach their watering and/or foraging areas through sustained flight. Species known to make extensive flights include the Ptarmigans, Sage Grouse, Crested Wood Partridge, Green Peafowl, Crested Argus, Mountain Peacock Pheasant, Koklass, Reeves's Pheasant and Green Junglefowl[citation needed]. Other species — for example, most of the toothed quails also known as New World Quails, the enigmatic African stone partridge, guineafowls and eared-pheasants — are all notable for their daily excursions on foot which may take them many miles in a given day. Most species that show only limited sexual dimorphism are notable for the great amount of locomotion required to find food throughout the majority of the year. Those species that are highly sedentary but with marked ecological transformations over seasons exhibit marked distinct differences between the sexes in size or appearance. Eared Pheasants, guineafowls, snow partridges and toothed quails are examples of limited sexual differences and requirements for traveling over wide terrain to forage.
The Bronze-tailed Peacock Pheasant, Snow Partridge, Painted Spurfowl (Galloperdix) and Crimson-headed Partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps) are notable in their habit of not only moving by foot but also in the air as pairs in the manner of doves.[citation needed]
[edit] Galliform families in taxonomic order
- Family: Megapodiidae, mound-builders
- Family: Cracidae, chachalacas, guans and curassows
- Family: Tetraonidae, grouse
- Family: Phasianidae, junglefowl (including the wild form of the domestic chicken), partridges, pheasants, quail, and allies.
- Family: Odontophoridae, New World quail
- Family: Numididae, guineafowl
- Family: Meleagrididae, turkeys
- Family: Mesitornithidae, mesites (may actually be more closely related to gruiform birds
The buttonquail family is traditionally listed among the Galliformes, but many authorities now regard it as sufficiently different to list it as a separate order. Similarly, the hoatzin was formerly listed here, but DNA comparison indicates that its affinities lie elsewhere (though exactly where is not yet wholly clear).
The Anseriformes (ducks and their allies) and the Galliformes together make up the Galloanserae. They are basal among neognathous birds, and normally follow the Paleognathae (ratites and tinamous) in bird classification systems.
[edit] External links
- The World Pheasant Association - The ultimate authority on Galliformes
- Gamebird Journal - An Online Magazine Devoted To The Gamebird Enthusiast
- Galliformes - Conservation and aviculture
- The phylogenetic tree of Galliformes based on insertions of CR1 Retroposons (open access article)
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