I’ve bought an annual pass for Kew Gardens this years so I’ll be going more frequently, and for shorter trips. Apart from all the botany and horticulture of course, Kew is also hone to a fair bit of wildlife, some of which is introduced and others being natural colonisers. Around the lakes for example, there are exotic geese and ducks. The woodland walk is always a good place for bird spotting and last time we surprise this trio of strange looking flightless birds, who seemed to hang about near one of the maintenance crew depots, so I’ve no doubt they get looked after to some extent.
I’ve no idea what they are though, do you?


Andy Roberts is a writer who initiated DARnet. Contact me on aroberts@gmail.com or @aroberts on twitter
They are guinea fowl, they are very tame at Kew. I’m trying to find out what the bad-tempered (with each other only because they seem quite tame to humans) geese with pink feet, pink legs and red bill are. They are colourful be seem to be put together “all wrong”
Spotted giuneas, native to Africa, are common to barnyards in the SE USA. they are NOT flightless. They fly quite well for short distances, like a wild turkey.
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