Grey Junglefowl
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
Tying with Grey Junglefowl Feathers
The versatile “Jungle Cock” 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, it 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 exotics
Rooster Capes
A nice junglecock cape has just the right balance of white, black, and gold. And of course, the nails have to be intact with no splits, or at least as few as possible.
So it is this standard that determines the grade of these capes. Take a look by scrolling over the thumbnails below.
Above I mentioned that after breeding season, roosters go into an eclipes plumage. These beautiful feathers on the neck are only a means to attract a mate
After that, they become a liability, making them more easily detected by preditors. The darker cape on the right is how to roosters neck looks outside of breeding season.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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| grade #1 | grade #2 | grade#3 |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
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.
grade #1 - $ grade #2 - $ grade #3 - $ |
Full Skin - Male
This is an older male in full feather. Check out the close ups below, the eyed feathers are in good condition and the color is very good.
The tail feathers are perfect, no wear at all on any edges. With a bit of steaming the eyes on the individual feathers will look as nice as the ones pictured in the sidebar.
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| cape | wing | saddle |
Full Skin - Female
This is a nice female in full feather. Check out the close ups below.
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| cape | wings | saddle |
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!
