Crested guineafowl complex

here u go.. a rather cluttered map as a pdf with the text from Britton (1980).

really important that you talk to any hunters you know and ask them to take digital images of any / all crested guineafowl heads when they are shooting for the pot.

more updates as they happen. it will be fun sorting this out.

need to prove black birds and red&blue birds breeding alongside / close to each other and without intergrades.

Neil

Crested Guineafowl Guttera edouardi
This and the next species are allopatric, forming a superspecies with G. plumifera. The races barbata and granti are locally common in dense thickets at low and medium elevations in E Tanzania, respectively to the south and west of G. pucherani, in the Mtwra and Lindi regions, and from Lake Eyasi and Ufiome Forest south to Ruaha NP. Typically, the race sethsmithi is a rather uncommon forest bird, though it also occurs in thickets and woodland. In Kenya it is widespread in the highlands west of the Rift at 1700-3000m, east to the Nguruman Hills, Eldama Ravine and Nakuru (in the Rift). In Uganda it is mainly a bird of larger tracts of forest in the south and west, north to Kabalega Falls NP and NE Teso. Specimens from Mahale Mt in W Tanzania have been assigned to sethsmithi but might belong in schoutedeni with which they should be compared.


Kenya Crested Guineafowl Guttera pucherani
Allopatric with G. edouardi, mainly in coastal forest but also in bushland and woodland thicket, from sea level to 1800m. It occurs from Soga to Witu, including Zanzibar and Tumbatu islands, inland to the Ulugurus, the East Usambaras, Mt Kilimanjaro and Lake Manyara in E Tanzania, and through the E plateau of Kenya to the eastern edge of the C highlands, from Ngong and Kikuyu to Meru and Mt Marsabit. In plateau country it is mainly localized in ground-water forests (e.g. Kitovu, Kibwezi, Lake Manyara) but also occurs in riverine thickets (e.g. Ngulia, Voi River).