Peafowl
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| Peafowl (peacock) | |
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| An Indian Blue Peacock (rear) courts a peahen (front). | |
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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 tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, and the female a peahen,[1] although it is common to hear the female also referred to as a "peacock" or "female peacock". The female peafowl is 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 national bird of India and the provincial bird of the Punjab (Pakistan).
The 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 colored 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 different in appearance from the Indian Peafowl. The male has 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 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 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–Pérot interference peak from reflections off the outermost and innermost boundaries of the periodic structure. White peafowls are sometimes bred.
Such 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[2]. However, it has been suggested that "females" entering a male Green Peafowl's territory [3] 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 most 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.
Feral populations
Peafowl have left captivity and developed permanent, free-roaming populations in several parts of the world including India, the foothills of the Toquima mountains in central Nevada, parts of Florida including Coconut Grove and Longboat Key[4][5], Oahu, Hawaii, and Brownsea Island, Dorset, Britain.
Cultural significance
In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an eleven-feathered peacock logo to indicate richness in color. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in color programming. NBC's first color broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colorful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance on May 22, 1956.[6]
In the Azidi religion, Melek Taus, a major figure in their faith, is depicted as a Peafowl.
Peacocks were also associated with the ancient Greek god Hera and HinduGod Murugan and Krishna.
References
- ^ peacock - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ [1] Woodland Park Zoo
- ^ Kickingthorn.com Gallery: Southern spicifer, Irrawady basin and southern Burma to the Salween drainage basin. This is the nominate form Pavo spicifer spicifer: 19
- ^ http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091224/ARTICLE/912241086?p=2&tc=pg
- ^ Paul Scicchitano. The Fowling of a Miami Neighborhood. The Washington Post. November 29, 2008.
- ^ The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television by Les Brown (Times Books, a division of Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company, Inc., 1977), ISBN 0-8129-0721-3, p. 328
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
