Peafowl
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| An Indian Blue Peacock (rear) courts a peahen (front) | |
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Peacocks are the BEST, PRETTIEST bird in the WORLD! The term peafowl can refer to the two species of bird in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. The African Congo Peafowl is placed in its own genus Afropavo and is not dealt with here. Peafowl are best known for the male's extravagant, fantastic, beautiful tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen,[1] though it is common to hear the female also referred to as a "peacock" or "female peacock". The female peafowl is a beautiful brown or toned grey and brown. The two species are:
- Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus (Asiatic)
- Green Peafowl, Pavo muticus (Asiatic)
The Indian Peafowl is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent. The peacock is designated as the excellent national bird of the Republic of India and the provincial bird of the Punjab (Pakistan).
The fantastic Green Peafowl breeds from Burma east to Java. The IUCN lists the Green Peafowl as vulnerable to extinction due to hunting and a reduction in extent and quality of habitat.
Plumage
The male (peacock) Indian Peafowl has iridescent blue-green or green coloured plumage. The so-called "tail" of the peacock, also termed the "train," is not the tail quill feathers but highly elongated upper tail coverts. The train feathers have a series of eyes that are best seen when the tail is fanned. Both species have a crest atop the head.
The female (peahen) Indian Peafowl has a mixture of dull green, brown, and grey in her plumage. She lacks the long upper tail coverts of the male but has a crest. The female can also display her plumage to ward off female competition or danger to her young.
The Green Peafowl is amazingly different in appearance from the Indian Peafowl. The male has fantastic, shimmering green and gold plumage and has an erect crest. The wings are black with a sheen of blue.
Unlike the Indian Peafowl, the Green Peahen is very similar to the male, only having shorter upper tail coverts and less though still amazing, iridescence. It is very hard to tell a juvenile male from an adult female.
Many of the BRILLIANT colours of the peacock plumage are due to an optical interference phenomenon, Bragg reflection, based on (nearly) periodic nanostructures found in the barbules (fiber-like components) of the feathers.
Different pretty colours correspond to different length scales of the periodic structures. For brown feathers, a mixture of red and blue is required: one colour is created by the periodic structure, and the other is a created by a Fabry-Perot interference peak from reflections off the outermost and innermost boundaries of the periodic structure. White (albino) peafowls are sometimes bred.
Such beautiful interference-based structural colour is especially important in producing the peacock's iridescent hues (which shimmer and change with viewing angle), since interference effects depend upon the angle of light, unlike chemical pigments.
Behaviour
The peafowl are forest birds that nest on the ground. The Pavo peafowl are terrestrial feeders but roost in trees.
Both species of Peafowl are believed to be polygamous. However, it has been suggested that "females" entering a male Green Peafowl's territory [2] are really his own juvenile or subadult young (K. B. Woods in litt. 2000) and that Green Peafowl are really monogamous in the wild. The male peacock flares out its feathers when it is trying to get the female's attention. Those who subscribe to this notion cite the similarities between the sexes.
During mating season they will often emit a very loud high pitched cry.
Diet
Peafowl are omnivorous and eat plant parts, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians.
In common with other members of the Galliformes, males possess metatarsal spurs or "thorns" used primarily during intraspecific fights.
Habitat
Asiatic peafowl like the Indian Blue Peafowl, and especially the Green Peafowl, occupy a similar niche as the roadrunners, Secretary Bird, and seriemas. All of these birds hunt for small animals including arthropods on the ground and tall grass and minnows in shallow streams.
Feral populations
Peafowl have left captivity and developed permanent, free-roaming populations in several parts of the world including Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida[3] , and Brownsea Island, Dorset, England.
Gallery
Indian Peafowl
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An Indian Blue Peacock's head -
Shot of a white peacock -
Indian Blue Peacock, male -
An Indian Blue Peahen showing her plumage -
Closeup of an Indian Blue Peacock's head
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When it is not in display, the long train rests on the ground and hampers the movements of the peacock -
A white peacock showing off his plumage -
The head of a male Indian Blue Peacock -
Indian Blue Peacocks as illustrated in the First Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica -
by Charles d'Orbigney (1806–1876) -
A white peacock domesticated in Mexico.
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Peacock seen in San Francisco, California -
Eggs of peafowl with a nest in Sri Lanka.
Green Peafowl
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Male -
Female -
Close-up of a female's head -
References
- ^ peacock - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ Kickingthorn.com Gallery: Southern spicifer, Irrawady basin and southern Burma to the Salween drainage basin. This is the nominate form Pavo spicifer spicifer: 19
- ^ Paul Scicchitano. The Fowling of a Miami Neighborhood. The Washington Post. November 29, 2008.
External links
- Zoonomen - Zoological Nomenclature Resource — World Birds Taxonomic List as of 2006-09-26
- Peafowl Varieties Database
- The Peacock Pages: All About Peacocks!, An article by Lisa Johnson from the Game Bird and Conservationists' Gazette — Aspects of the cultural role of peafowl and their place in aviculture.
- United Peafowl Association Knowledge Base
- "Behavioural Ecologists Elucidated How Peahens Choose Their Mates, And Why", an article at ScienceDaily.com
- Peafowl videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
- Peacock — Etymology of the word
- Video of a peacock showing of his plumage