![JungleFowR-white hybrid [ThongChowNgian] 1](http://www.besgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/JungleFowR-white-hybrid-ThongChowNgian-1.jpg)
“I saw a male white hybrid of a Red Junglefowl (Galus Galus) on 31st July 2017 standing on a tall branch about 3.5 meters above the ground at Pasir Ris Park. It was interesting to notice that it was an adult male and it was almost completely white (above) which I have never seen before.
![JungleFowR-white hybrid [ThongChowNgian] 2](http://www.besgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/JungleFowR-white-hybrid-ThongChowNgian-2.jpg)
“I have seen a white female fowl before (above) on 21st April 2017 at Pasir Ris Park together with an adult male that had the typical colouration of a Red Junglefowl. I am not sure whether the female bird was a hybrid but I did noticed that it had the white ear patch and grey legs.
![JungleFowR-white hybrid [ThongChowNgian] 3](http://www.besgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/JungleFowR-white-hybrid-ThongChowNgian-3.jpg)
“I wanted to make a simple comparison between the typical male Red Junglefowl with the male White Hybrid that I saw. I came across a comparison chart from an NUS blog called, `The Red Junglefowl in Singapore’. I added one more column on the right and entitled it, `White Hybrid’ (see Table 1). I wanted to find out how different this White Hybrid male bird was from the original species (above). A main feature that was missing from this chart is the colour of the feathers but it was obvious that this White Hybrid was vastly different. Here are my observations on the rest of the features.
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Size: The White Hybrid was almost similar to the original species. It even had the long central tail feathers.
Colour of legs: The White Hybrid had paler grey legs as compared with the original species.
White ear patch: The White ear patch was still obvious in the White Hybrid.
Ability to fly: Definitely as it was perched high above the ground.
Call: Unfortunately I did not pay attention to this feature.
Temperament: The White Hybrid was slightly nervous when I approached the tree but it remained up there when I was standing in front of the tree. It remained there and I walked away 5 minutes later.
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“My simple conclusion from Table 1 is that this White Hybrid still had several features of the original Red Jungle Fowl except for the leg colour and temperament. However a more scientific comparison will reveal more useful information than this simple chart.”
Thong Chow Ngian
Singapore
1st August 2017
Lee Chiu San
The bird you observed need not necessarily have been a hybrid. It could have been an albino or leucistic individual. Specimens with aberrant colouration, do show up in many species, for example, mynahs and crows, that have no domestic races.
The fact that the bird was bold is not 100% proof that it was a hybrid. While purebred junglefowls are noticeably more skittish than domestic chickens, even they become tame when used to being fed by people.
Thong Chow Ngian
Thank you Chiu San for your feedback. Appreciate it. Cheers!
Ben
I’m actually breeding the white version from the red jungle fowl. I bred my red for four years when I had the white come out. More I’m breeding the whites together and the all came out the same. Temperament is different. They can fly very good as the refs do too.
BESG
Dear Ben,
Looks like you are studying the inheritance of feather colours in red jungle fowl. Would appreciate if you will share the outcome of your studies with our readers in the future. It will throw light on the nature of the white feather gene (dominant, recessive).
Vincent Chow
I read with interest on the White Jungle fowl.When I was in my primary school days, I had witnessed a small group of villagers offering 2 white fowls during their prayers at the edge of a jungle at Paloh. Apparently the release of the two birds were to appease the forest spirits, a ceremony that was quite often seen in rural areas ehen the belief in spirits and ghosts was coomon..Subsequently, many years later I had encountered white fowls at the forest edge in several parts of Johore whenever I followed my grandmother to visit her friend in a few many kampong which were mostly located near to the jungle’s edge. Could some of the current sighting of white wild fowls be that of those descended from these releases which I had noted to be similar to some of the White leghorns that were commonly reared in villages during the 50s in Johor?