Singapore Postcard: Kampong Chicken or Red Jungle Fowl?

Exhibit A: A bird at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, helpfully identified on an interpretive plaque as a Red Jungle Fowl.

Exhibit B: A kampong chicken seen while walking my dog.

So what’s the difference?

Kampong chickens are village chickens (“kampong” means village). They’re free ranging, free foraging local birds found throughout Malaysia, Indonesia, and occasionally Singapore. A bit of quick research reveals that kampong chickens are a the result of random cross-breeding between red jungle fowl and exotic chicken breeds introduced in the 1700s.