Helmeted guineafowl
Amazing fact
Helmeted guineafowl swallow small pebbles for their gizzards.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Helmeted guineafowl swallow small pebbles for their gizzards.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Helmeted guineafowl
- Scientific name
- Numida meleagris
- Japanese name
- ホロホロチョウ
- Group
- Birds
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Numididae
- Genus
- Numida
This bird lives in Africa south of the Sahara, in grasslands, savannas, farmland and scrub.
On top of its head is a bony, helmet-like bump called a casque, which both males and females have.
By day it searches the ground for food in flocks, and at night it roosts in trees for safety.
How the Helmeted guineafowl lives
They dig with their feet and jab with their bills to obtain food. They eat grass seeds and leaves as well as snails and insects. They take dust baths daily to clean their feathers.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Wingspan: 150–180 cm
- Weight
- 1,134–1,842 g
- Active
- By day (diurnal)
- Range
- Most of sub-Saharan Africa
Where the Helmeted guineafowl has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ホロホロチョウ
- 简体中文
- 珠鸡
- 繁體中文
- 珠雞
- 한국어
- 호로새
- Español
- Gallina de Guinea
- Français
- Pintade de Numidie
- Deutsch
- Helmperlhuhn
- Português (Brasil)
- Galinha d'Angola
- Italiano
- Faraona mitrata
- العربية
- دجاج غيني أبو خوذة
- Tiếng Việt
- Gà sao
- Русский
- Обыкновенная цесарка
- Türkçe
- Beç Tavuğu
- اردو
- چینی مرغی
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Numida meleagrisChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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