User:Callipepla7

Bio
Currently I'm a college student in the pacific northwest, when I'm not in class I hike and pack stock in the backcountry. I also raise and breed exotic gamebirds, study poultry genetics, love quail, photograph wildlife, and draw. I raised quail (Coturnix japonica) for 5 years, and plan on raising more after college. I'm currently studying to become an Ornithologist. I was raised near K-town Germany, and Gulfport MS.

I hope to actively contribute to Wikipedia mainly on the Guinea fowl, and other poultry pages. I currently have a guinea who was raised without siblings, named Oreo. I hope to help document some of his behaviors seeing as guinea fowl are rarely tamed to his extent. I enjoy studying genetics as well ad I'm interested in contributing what I learn to various pages. Researching different bird species and breeds and keeping their Wikipedia pages updated is my main interest because Wikipedia helped me with my own research many times.

Article Critique
I visited the Domestic Guineafowl page on Wikipedia, and found three aspects worth commenting on: almost nothing is cited in the article, there is very little listed about the most commonly domesticated species, the helmeted guineafowl, and there is nothing listed about the different species of domesticated guineafowl.

In the article there is only one citation,briefly referring to the guieafowl’s history of domestication. The reference itself is a book published in 1999 about raising guineafowl. The article provides little actual data or observations needing a citation, however multiple sections would benefit from this and more info. This is especially odd because the guinea fowl has been researched many times by many different researchers, including extensive research by Texas A&M.

A specific topic that could benefit from more information would be the helmeted guineafowl, the most commonly domesticated species. The article lacks to include many key things about this species including their color mutations, durability, care requirements, uses, and behaviors. Helmeted guineafowl have multiple color mutations, key for a new owner to know about. The article currently only provides a small list, excluding many mutations and the genetic information corresponding to each mutation. I noticed that the article provided the call of a guinea hen it forgets to mention how this differentiates from the guinea cocks call, and seeing as this is one of the only ways to sex the species it is valuable information that should probably be supported by an audio recording or linked video. The article should also provide information on hatching, by broody or incubator, and on common diseases and sicknesses. Not only do some sections of the article falsely infer that there is only one species of domestic guineafowl, but they fail to label which species they are talking about in individual facts.

The helmeted guineafowl is by far the most commonly raised guineafowl, however a variety of species can be raised. Vulturine guineafowl and crested guineafowl are the other two domestic species however they require different care than the helmeted guineafowl.