Black Guineafowl
Photo: Daniel Giraud Elliot · Public domain

Guineafowl

Black Guineafowl

Agelastes niger

LCLeast Concern
Family
Guineafowl (Numididae)
Order
Galliformes

Overview

The black guinea fowl (Agelastes niger) is a terrestrial bird of the Numididae (guinea fowl) family found in humid forests in West-Central Africa. It is a medium-sized, black galliforme bird with a bare, orange-pink head and upper neck. As it inhabits dense, potentially inaccessible, regions of equatorial African jungle, little is known of black guinea fowl behaviour or habits. By all accounts, it is a more reclusive, secretive bird when compared to the other, more sociable guinea fowl species; i.e., researchers have been able to successfully observe and document far more information on the confident, gregarious and open grassland-dwelling helmeted guinea fowl (Numidia meleagris), or even the more exotic vulturine guinea fowl (Acryllium vulturinum).

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Congolian forest of southeastern Nigeria to northern Angola and far northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.