Grey Junglefowl

Tying with Grey Junglefowl Feathers

While this species is found mainly in peninsular India, and the Red junglefowl along the foothills of the Himalayas, there is some overlap along the northern boundary. Some suggest crossbreeding led to the modern domesticated chicken. Habitat ranges from the dry deciduous foothill country to moist evergreen forests, but it is most commonly found in mixed bamboo jungles. Males go into an eclipes plumage after the end of breeding season.

Gallus sonneratii

Grade I

A nice cape has just the right balance of white, black, and gold, with no split nails, or at least as few as possible

The versatile “Jungle Cock Cape” has been in use for salmon flies since the nineteenth century. The most recognized feather is the cape feather or the jungle cock nail.

Used in salmon flies for just about every application such as sides, cheeks, tail veilings, underwings and body veilings, the grey jungle cock nail is the most sought after feather. However, the lower nape grey and transition feathers can be use for streamers, steelhead and salmon patterns.

Mary Orvis Marbury offers trout flies such as the Cheney, Imbrie and the Junglecock, for bass flies such as the Jungle Cock and the Maid Of The Mill and a lake fly named the Golden Rod. Side tails can be used again for spey patterns for hackles and wing coverts can be use for whole feather wing salmon flies.

rooster feathers
hen feathers
full skins
fly patterns
links to other junglefowl breeds

<jungle cock cape> Rooster Capes

These are the capes I have available with a short explanation of grading standards. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

<jungle cock saddle> Saddles

As you can see, there are some beautiful colors and patterns in the saddle feathers. There is a bit of color variation from saddle to saddle, so if you're interested in one, I'll email you some pictures.


$45


				$45

Matukas

This is the patch taken off the front of the rooster. There is a large range of sizes and color variation on these patches. I have a few with the soft hackle chic-a-bou attached to the bottom.


			$25

<jungle cock wings> Wings

These are the largest nails on the bird. Great for streamer patterns and artistic flies, these brilliantly colored feathers can be as long as 3 inches.

Check out the pair of wings on the sidebar. The wing on the right is a naturally occuring color mutation.

This is not only seen on the wings, but nails on the whole bird have this pale yellow color. The nails on the cape and shoulders are lacking the firery color pigment typical of most males.


$25

<jungle cock shoulders> Shoulders

These are paired shoulder patches from birds that we have grown. The nails or "flames" as I've heard them called make for interesting cheeks on streamer patterns.

Here again, check out the pair on the sidebar. The one on the left is off a rooster that pale yellow color gene that I mentioned in the section on wing pairs.

This pale coloring makes dying to bright colors very effective.


$10

Capes

Well certainly not as dramatic as the rooster's cape, I always find it interesting to see the corresponding feathers on the hens. These feathers have some interesting color patterns and are great for tying small nymphs.


grade #1 - $40 grade #2 - $25 grade #3 - $15

Saddles

The feathers on these saddles are much smaller relative to those found on a domestic hen saddle. The fine vermiculated pattern gives the fly a buggy look.


$30

Soft hackle with Chic-a-bou

This is the matuka patch from the hen. The pattern and color of the matuka feathers varies some from bird to bird, but all have the softest hackle available.


$25


Full Skin - Male	$0.00
Here is an adult Grey male, I guessing 3 to 4 years old. This bird is just coming out of a moult, the color is vibrant and the edges of the feathers are fresh. With game farm raised birds, the best quality feathers come from just such a bird. No wear marks from rubbing on the wire or fading from the sun. The tail has not grown all the way in, but as you can see, the covers and tail quills are long enough to any pattern.
To check out, click the "view cart" button


Full Skin - Female	$0.00
Here is an adult Grey male, I guessing 3 to 4 years old. This bird is just coming out of a moult, the color is vibrant and the edges of the feathers are fresh. With game farm raised birds, the best quality feathers come from just such a bird. No wear marks from rubbing on the wire or fading from the sun. The tail has not grown all the way in, but as you can see, the covers and tail quills are long enough to any pattern.
To check out, click the "view cart" button

I'm looking for pictures of flies and the recipies you used to tie them. Please give me a call or email me for more information.

Thanks!

Junglefowl The earliest fossil records of junglefowl were found in southeastern Europe. Sadly, I don't have any feathers from this "Giant Junglefowl" breed, we can only imagine what they might have looked like. Today there are 56 recognized lines of fancy show breeds, all genetic descendents of the red junglefowl. Domesticating this bird and selecting for all the different breeds took hundreds if not thousands of years. However, if we took all lines of fancy chickens and bred them back together, we would end up unraveling all those years and be right back with a red junglefowl. Breeds:
	Grey	Green	Red	Ceylon

Quick links to other exotics:
	pheasants partridge grouse softbills	quail junglefowl peafowl hookbills	guineafowl turkey bustards ratites	cranes waterfowl pigeons and doves