And so, I decided to search the bushes ...
...as normally they would scatter far away at my approach, but not this time, and my gut told me to investigate.
So, I backed away and circled around the bushes to come in on the other side, and there they were. In a guinea fowl family, all adults act like parents, and they all look after the little keets. There is no mine and your divisions in a family, as all feed the keets like their own. The sad thing is that they lose many babies to predators like birds of prey and of course house cats.
Guineafowl (/ˈɡɪnifaʊl/) (or guineahen) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the Cracidae (chachalacas, guans, and curassows) and before the Odontophoridae (New World quail).
An Eocene fossil lineage Telecrex has been associated with guineafowl; Telecrex inhabited Mongolia, and may have given rise to the oldest of the true phasianids, such as blood pheasants and eared pheasants, which evolved into high-altitude, montane-adapted species with the rise of the Tibetan Plateau. While modern guineafowl species are endemic to Africa, the helmeted guineafowl has been introduced as a domesticated bird widely elsewhere.
What a history, and we tend to see them as just ordinary birds. In my mind they are living fossils. lol
Oh yeah, it was the right thing to do, and if you look carefully at this picture below, you will get a glimpse of some small keets.
Babies! (Guinea fowl babies are called keets). And that's why they didn't flee from my presence, although I was careful not to go closer to them.
So, here below that family were discussing a plan to get the babies away from my presence.
It was decided that this couple below would take the babies away, while the rest of the family kept their eyes on me.
The ones with the blue heads are males, and the females have red heads.
A little one ran after a butterfly and an uncle fetched him to take him back to the others. Amazing to see that such little keets will grow up to the size of the adults.
So, the babies were all gathered again, and the adult couple led them away.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a close up of one or more of the babies, as I didn't want to disturb them, but there is enough of them in the post to keep you happy. But there is a lot of cuteness in the post, and also so amazing that they all act as parents to the keets. I wonder what would happen in this world if every adult acted as a parent to all children.
But of course, that will never happen, as we believe in the mine is mine and yours are yours system.
So sad and the children will continue to be denied. (Especially the poor ones)
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and may all have a wonderful new week.
Photos by Zac Smith-All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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