Gallus gallus outside its native range

Nature Talk
1

Sometimes when identifying I come across an observation of a junglefowl in Hawaii or somewhere else outside its native range. Can I assume that any such bird is a domestic (possibly feral) chicken?

2

Yes, Gallus gallus species outside its native range, including Hawaii, is a domestic chicken, and should be marked as casual.

3

But couldn’t they be feral?

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4

On iNaturalist, if the animal is wandering free or is feral, it is classified as wild. For example, a wild feral cat with no owner, or has escaped captivity would be wild.

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I have birded on Oahu several times. I’ve seen Red Jungle Fowl lots of time. Most of the time they are simply living in the woods, living their lives. Not typically associated with people. They may have been domesticated at on time, but now they seem like wild birds.

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6

You can probably safely assume that its genetic ancestry is from a domestic chicken. But that doesn’t mean it should be voted as “Not Wild” as others have noted.

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7

There are a number of feral chicken populations around the world that should be marked as wild. However, there is also a population of wild-type Red Junglefowl introduced in Georgia.

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Unless it’s clear the chicken is a pet or livestock, it shouldn’t be marked captive, IMO. Wild/not wild on iNat refers to the individual, not the taxon.

Lots of wild chickens in Hawaii now. FWIW when I was growing on O’ahu in the 80s and 90s you’d basically never see them in the wild. Now they’re everywhere. Hurricane Iniki was blamed for their spread on Kaua’i (not sure how true that is), I don’t know what caused the explosion on O’ahu.

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9

They call them hurricanes and not cyclones in Hawaii?

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10

Yup. West of the dateline or so they’re typhoons. See https://gpm.nasa.gov/resources/faq/what-difference-between-typhoon-cyclone-and-hurricane

Over the Atlantic and East Pacific, tropical cyclones are commonly called “hurricanes.” The common term is “typhoon” for a tropical cyclone that forms in the West Pacific. Tropical cyclones are called just “cyclones” in the Indian Ocean and near Australia.

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11

I just say ‘big swirly storms but not tornadoes’.

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12

Those, I liked to call by their name in Hawaiian: moa.

I was there before the explosion on O’ahu. The explanation I heard for their abundance on Kaua’i was that it was the one main island without introduced mongooses.

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13

Atlanta or Tbilisi (Kartulia)?

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Georgia, USA, sorry. I usually remember to specify that one but apparently not today. ;)

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