Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Heard an interesting story from my guide in Kenya.

As a boy, he would kill and eat the helmeted guinea fowls with his friends. They would find innovative ways to kill these fowls. The obvious choice was a slingshot but they soon realised they can experiment new ways to kill these birds. Since guinea fowls have lot of meat in them, the bigger and heavier the bird, more the meat.

So as a young boy, he apparently used to steal a cup of his fathers liquor and dip lots of corn in it through the night. The corn would soak up quite a bit of liquor. And this ‘corn dipping’ task was shared by all his friends who would then go disperse the liquor soaked corns in the scrubland early morning and wait for the guinea fowls to come and feed on them. Once the birds would feed on the corn, they would sit at one place in their drunken state without being able to move. The boys would then go pick these birds, weigh them with their hands, and kill the heaviest of them, while they would let the others come back to their senses and go on with their daily lives. The boys would do this again after a couple of days and plot to kill another fat bird.

And this went on till his father caught him one day and thrashed him for stealing his precious liquor.

A polka dotted grey bird with sky blue face, small crown on its head and a distinctly frail neck can be often seen running around trying to hide behind bush when one drives through the shrublands in Kenya.

When: May 2013
Where: Masaai Mara, Kenya
Equip: Nikon D4 | Nikon 200-400
Fstop: 4.5
Shutter: 1/200
ISO: 1000