section_path: Animals/Birds
section_name: Birds
paragraph_text: Birds
  
  Domesticated birds principally mean poultry, raised for meat and eggs: some Galliformes (chicken, turkey, guineafowl) and Anseriformes (waterfowl: ducks, geese, and swans). Also widely domesticated are cagebirds such as songbirds and parrots; these are kept both for pleasure and for use in research. The domestic pigeon has been used both for food and as a means of communication between far-flung places through the exploitation of the pigeon's homing instinct; research suggests it was domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago. Chicken fossils in China have been dated to 7,400 years ago. The chicken's wild ancestor is Gallus gallus, the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia. The species appears to have been kept initially for cockfighting rather than for food.