Siren Song

The young guinea females are feeling broody and are calling for a man.   One in particular is always courting, she walks away from the rest of the flock and starts quietly calling “mm-ca mm-ca”,  if he doesn’t follow, she ups the volume to “inn-Ca  inn-Ca” and if that doesn’t work it is at full volume INN-KA INN-KA.   The guineas generally pair bond for life and it is the females that choose their partner.   It is a bit noisy at the moment as the girls are all picking their vantage points and calling.  One flies onto the roof of the water tank each morning and calls.  I am not sure how many males we have as they chased a couple of young ones off when we first integrated the flock, so we may have a few lonely girls or they may share.  Usually spare males form a bachelor flock, but I am not sure what happens when you have spare females.   A couple of our first birds had formed a pair bond and died together which was quite moving – one was killed by a fox and the other stayed by their side and died of heat stroke.