Black Guineafowl

Open encyclopedia reference

The black guinea fowl (Agelastes niger) is a terrestrial bird of the Numididae (guinea fowl) family found in humid forests in West-Central Africa. It is a medium-sized, black galliforme bird with a bare, orange-pink head and upper neck. As it inhabits dense, potentially inaccessible, regions of equatorial African jungle, little is known of black guinea fowl behaviour or habits. By all accounts, it is a more reclusive, secretive bird when compared to the other, more sociable guinea fowl species; i.e., researchers have been able to successfully observe and document far more information on the confident, gregarious and open grassland-dwelling helmeted guinea fowl (Numidia meleagris), or even the more exotic vulturine guinea fowl (Acryllium vulturinum). Compared to the black guinea fowl, the aforementioned species (and most guinea fowl) tend to be found in more exposed, dry savanna and arid open forest habitat, and congregate in larger communal flocks.

Wikipedia contributors, Black guinea fowl; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:25:00.999215+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Agelastes niger (Cassin, 1857)

Name authority

(Cassin, 1857)

Common name

Black Guineafowl

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Galliformes

Family

Numididae

Genus

Agelastes

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderGalliformes
10. familyNumididae
11. genusAgelastes Bonaparte, 1850
12. speciesAgelastes niger (Cassin, 1857)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Agelastes. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 5 records assigned to Numididae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=176124 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5TPWW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.