The Black Guineafowl is a ground-dwelling bird of forests in western and central Africa. It has black plumage and a bare red head, and occurs in small groups.
Adults are black overall, with bare red skin on the head and upper neck.
Black Guineafowl are ground-dwelling birds of African tropical forest. They inhabit Cameroon’s Dja Faunal Reserve alongside elephants, apes and forest antelopes. Cameras installed for mammal surveys also recorded these birds.
From 2016 to 2020, researchers deployed eight survey grids with 305 camera sampling points across the reserve. Combined operation totalled 28,277 camera-days, accumulating records of animals passing through the forest’s lower layers.
The survey detected six ground-dwelling bird species. Black Guineafowl was reported throughout the reserve, together with Plumed Guineafowl, Latham’s Forest Francolin and Nkulengu Rail. Photographs revealed a widespread community of birds sharing the forest floor with mammals.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2023 Dja report noted that guineafowls are hunted for food, possibly unsustainably. Conserving forest and investigating the effects of hunting are therefore relevant locally. Camera records provide a baseline for checking future changes in distribution.