Red junglefowl

The red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical bird in the family Phasianidae. It ranges across much of Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. It was formerly known as the bankiva or bankiva fowl. It is the species that gave rise to the chicken (Gallus domesticus); the grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl and green junglefowl have also contributed genetic material to the gene pool of the chicken. Evidence from the molecular level derived from whole-genome sequencing revealed that the chicken was domesticated from red junglefowl about 8,000 years ago, with this domestication event involving multiple maternal origins. Since then, their domestic form has spread around the world where they are kept by humans for their meat, eggs, and companionship. Junglefowl The red jungle fowl has 5 recognized subspecies: G. g. bankiva (Temminck, 1813) - Java and Bali G. g. gallus (Linnaeus, 1758) - southern Myanmar through Indochina G. g. jabouillei (Delacour & Kinnear, 1928) - south China to northern Vietnam and northern Laos G. g. murghi (Robinson & Kloss, 1920) - north India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh G. g. spadiceus (Bonnaterre, 1792) - northeastern India to south China, the Malay peninsula, and north Sumatra The nominate race of red junglefowl has a mix of feather colours, with orange, brown, red, gold, grey, white, olive and even metallic green plumage. The tail of the male roosters can grow up to , and the whole bird may be as long as . There are 14 tail feathers. A moult in June changes the bird's plumage to an eclipse pattern, which lasts through October. The male eclipse pattern includes a black feather in the middle of the back and small red-orange plumes spread across the body. Female eclipse plumage is generally indistinguishable from the plumage at other seasons, but the moulting schedule is the same as that of males. Compared to the more familiar domestic chicken, the red junglefowl has a much smaller body mass (around lbs (1 kg) in females and lbs (1.5 kg) in males) and is brighter in coloration.