Poultry

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Categories: Poultry | Bird stubs | Livestock stubs

Ducks amongst other poultry

The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds kept for meat, eggs, and feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens and turkeys) and the family Anatidae (in order Anseriformes), commonly known as "waterfowl" (e.g. domestic ducks and domestic geese). Poultry also include other meat birds such as pigeons or doves or game birds like pheasants. The term also refers to the flesh of such birds.

Examples of types of poultry

Bird	Wild ancestor	Domestication	Uses
Chicken	Red Junglefowl	India, c. 3000 BC	meat, eggs
Duck	Mallard	various	meat, feathers, eggs
Goose	Greylag Goose/Swan Goose	various	meat, feathers, eggs
Peacock	various	various	meat, feathers, ornamental, landscaping
Swan	Wild Swan	various	feathers, eggs, landscaping
Turkey	Wild Turkey	Mexico	meat

Cuts of poultry

Image:LemonChicken2.jpg

Cuts from a skinned chicken.

The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second segments of its legs, called the thigh and drumstick respectively.

White meat has less oxygen-carrying myoglobin than the walking muscles, or dark meat, and is thus lighter in color.