200 Incredible Facts About Peacock

200 Interesting Facts About Peacock

Peacock is also called peafowl.
Their natural habitat is the forest or rain forest.
Peacocks are twice the size of peahens.
Congo peafowl is Africa’s only large phasianid.
Male and female birds of this genera is ‘peafowl’.
There is also the green peafowl of Southeast Asia.
There is also the one African species is the Congo peafowl.
This is native only to the Congo Basin.
The birds may have looked beautiful, but they reportedly tasted terrible.
Male peafowl are known for their piercing calls and their extravagant plumage.
A group of peafowl is called a party, muster, ostentation or pride.
The Indian peafowl is the national bird of India and is protected in that country.
So, their feathers can be gathered and sold without the birds coming to any harm.
The average lifespan of a peacock in the wild is about 20 years.
Peachicks weighs a mere 103 grams at birth. In a day, they start walking!
A peacock can have a maximum of 200 feathers on its tail at any given point in time.
Needless to say, peahens are not as attractive as peacocks.
Peacocks dance in a peculiar and distinct way to attract females.
For Jews, the golden peacock is a sign of creativity and joy.
They can run at a speed of 16 kilometers per hour or 10 miles per hour.
Peacocks have a top running speed of around 16 km/h (10 mph).
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera Pavo and Afropavo.
It belongs in the family of Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies.
Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are referred to as peahens, even though peafowl of either sex are often referred to colloquially as “peacocks”
The two Asiatic species are the blue or Indian peafowl originally of the Indian subcontinent.
The latter is especially prominent in the Asiatic species, which have an eye-spotted “tail” or “train” of covert feathers, which they display as part of a courtship ritual.
Peafowl are omnivores and eat mostly plant parts, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians.
Peafowl have 11 different calls, but the peacocks are the ones that really yell. They have a call that carries for a long distance and sounds like “may-AWE, may-AWE.”
Peafowl are social birds. It’s typically only older peacocks that stay by themselves. They sleep in large groups in tall trees, which is called roosting, to protect themselves from other animals. They make shrieking sounds to alert each other of danger.
The tail of the peacock is called a train. The feathers also have some microscopic structures which look like crystals. These crystal-like structures reflect light. The few other species to have such crystals are hummingbirds and shimmering butterflies.
Did you know that peacocks can make 11 different types of sounds? Peacocks make another type of sound that has so low pitch that humans can’t hear it. They make this sound with the help of their tail.
The most preferred areas of habitat for peacocks are rainforests, bushlands, forests, and warm places.
Blue or Indian peacocks can survive cold winters pretty comfortably but the green peacocks can’t tolerate winter.
Peacocks are considered as the protectors of Feng Shui. The feathers are considered to protect people from threats. The white peacock is considered as a bearer of eternal tranquility and happiness.
The peafowls reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 years. The peahens lay around 6 eggs. January to March is the best time for laying eggs. The eggs hatch in about 28 days. Peahens are excellent mothers.
Just like many birds, peacocks are polygamous. They mate with multiple partners. A peacock usually has two female partners but some can have as many as five.
Peafowls tend to get aggressive when any stranger (any other peafowl or a human) enters their territory. They don’t even let snakes enter their territory.
A peahen has a sensor in her crest that can feel the vibrations of a potential mate who may be a little far. This sensor tunes to the vibrations of the peacock’s tails.
When a peacock rattles his tail, the tail is shaken at a rate of 26 times per second. This creates a pressure wave that catches the attention of a peahen.
They display their feathers prominently in spring or their breeding season. Thanks to their feathers which give a wingspan of 4.9 feet or 1.5 meters, they are considered as one of the largest flying birds in the entire world.
They make their nests on ground but they usually prefer to perch on treetops.
Greeks believed that the flesh or meat of peafowls doesn’t decay even after its death. Hence, they were considered a symbol of immortality.
The Bible praised the peacocks stating they are the most prized item aboard the ships of King Solomon that came from Asia.
A popular television network in the USA, NBC’s logo is in the form of a colorful peacock. This logo has been active since 1956.
There are in fact 3 species. Indian peafowl found in India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, Green peafowl found in Southeast Asia, and Congo peafowl found in Central Africa.
A group of peacocks is known as a “party”. The name for a group of peahens is a “harem”.
Peafowls can live 15-20 years in the wild, and up to 35 years in captivity.
Their predators include leopards, tigers, and mongoose.
They are highly sociable birds and require companionship.
Peafowls are omnivorous i.e, they eat both meat and vegetables. The meal consists of berries, seeds, leaves, insects, small mammals, and reptiles.
The peacock is one of the largest flying birds. A peacock’s total length can reach 8 feet; 3 feet for the body and 5 feet for the tail feathers (train).
Peafowls can (sort of) fly – they tend to run and take several small leaps before a big final hop. They can’t stay airborne for very long, but their huge wingspan allows them to flutter quite far.
Wingspan for females is from 80 to 130 centimeters (31 to 51 inches) and for males from 130 to 160 centimeters (51 to 63 inches).
In the morning, they break up into small groups. In the nonbreeding season, these are usually groups of all peacocks or all peahens; but during the breeding season, there are harem groups of one peacock and several peahens or all bachelors.
Peacocks have elaborate feathers to show dominance and to attract peahens for mating purposes. The prettier the peacock, the more peahens he attracts by strutting around and shaking his feathers. Once mating is done, the female bird gathers various materials to create a nest. Males look for other peahens to mate.
The natural predators of peafowl include mongooses, jungle cats, stray dogs, leopards, and tigers.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species categorized Green peafowl as an “endangered species” in 2012.
A peahen can lay up to six eggs at a time, although there have been occasional cases of even more. They will lay their eggs in the afternoon in most cases.
The diet of peafowl generally consists of a variety of plants, insects, and certain reptiles and amphibians.
Male birds are not known for having just one partner in the wild. Instead, there will have a minimum of two and can comfortably have as many as five female partners.
A peacock has such a bright and dramatic train to attract the attention of peahens, who normally choose their mates based on the size, color, and quality of the feathers and train.
With a fairly large wingspan around 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) and its large feathers, the peacock is one of the largest flying birds on earth.
The Indian peacock is thought to be instinct now in Bangladesh, although it remains popular around areas of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.
One of the main differences between peacocks and peahens is their size. Although they vary in size, males are often as much as twice the size of their female counterparts.
The large colorful “tail” they have become known for is called a “train.”
A common feature of all peafowl is the bare patches of skin that can be found around their eyes. This can be seen in male and female birds and also across different species.
The average running speed for peacocks is 10 miles per hour (16 kph).
If you see a peacock flying into a tree, don’t be alarmed. The birds are sometimes seen doing this in the wild to protect themselves from a predator.
All the species of peafowl have crests are the top of their heads. However, the design and color can vary across the different species and between different sexes.
Peafowl does not enjoy living alone and tends to stay within small groups as they are highly sociable and dependent birds.
Amazingly there is no blue or green pigment is present in the tail feathers of a male peacock. The brilliant colors that we see are due to microscopic “crystal-like structures” on feathers that reflect different wavelengths of light depending on how they’re spaced resulting in fluorescent colors.
The tail feathers in fact fall off and are replaced once each summer.
Peafowls are forest birds that stay on the ground in the day but nest in trees at night
Peacocks have spurs on their feet that are primarily used to fight with other males. They are polygamous. Peacocks generally have a harem of 2 – 5 females.
Blue peacocks are the most commonly seen in parks and zoos and are of the Indian variety. The Indian peacock is in fact the national bird of India
It is one of the loudest birds. The frequency of calls is increased in the monsoon season. In the wild, their calls indicate the presence of some predator like a tiger. They in fact have a range of up to 11 distinct calls that carry long distances.
More recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his handicap theory that these features acted as honest signals of the males’ fitness, since less-fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.
Like other bird species, it’s the male of the peafowl species that has such eye-catching color and lovely decorative tail feathers.
A group of peafowl is called a bevy, an ostentation, or a muster.
When they hatch and for months afterward, male and female peachicks look identical.
The males don’t start to develop color until they are about three months old, and it’s not until full maturity at three years old that their famous display tails are in full feather.
In 1963, the blue or Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) was designated India’s national bird.
Its range covers nearly the entire Indian subcontinent, where it is a species of Least Concern (common and healthy populations throughout its range), according to the IUCN.
It has a rich tradition of depiction in Indian art and Hindu religious culture, including being associated with gods and goddesses as well as royalty.
Peacocks generally shed their feathers after mating season every year. Fortunately for them, they don’t get killed for their beautiful feathers.
The tail feathers of peacock may reach up to a length of six feet (for the green peacock) and it actually makes up 60% of the body length. They still can fly but only for short distances. The peachicks can start flying when they are just 3 days old.
You can find an all-white peafowl. It is not natural and it is not even albino. It is because of leucism – a genetic mutation that causes loss or decrease of many pigments including melatonin. This results in the feathers being white, pale, etc.
The difference between albino and leucistic is the fact that in leucism, the eyes don’t lose any pigmentation. Any albino person or animal loses pigmentation in eyes and skin and sometimes even hair (for humans).
The Indian peacock has very flashy plumage, with a bright blue head and neck. The peacock “tail”, known as a “train”, consists not of tail quill feathers, but highly elongated upper tail coverts. These feathers are marked with eyespots, best seen when a peacock fans his tail. The Indian peahen has a mixture of dull grey, brown, and green in her plumage. The male needs his bright feathers to attract a mate, and the female needs to be able to blend in with the bushes so that predators cannot see her while she is incubating her eggs.
The green peafowl differs from the Indian peafowl in that the male has green and gold plumage with black wings with a sheen of blue. Unlike the Indian peafowl, the green peahen is similar to the male, only having shorter upper tail coverts, a more coppery neck, and overall less iridescence.
The Congo peacock does not display his covert feathers, but uses his actual tail feathers during courtship displays. These feathers are much shorter than those of the Indian and green species, and the ocelli are much less pronounced.
Peacocks are best known for their amazing eye-spotted tail feathers or plumage. During a display ceremony, the peacock will stand its tail feathers up to form a fan that stretches out nearly 2 m in length. The eye-like spot on the feather is called the ocellus.
A male peacock displays beautiful colors and designs while the poor peahen is so plain. The male peacock has 20 large tail feathers which he uses to attract female peahens. The peacock’s tail feathers in fact make up 60% of his total length.
Peahen chooses its partner by the length, width, and coloration, and designs of the tail and perpetuates these designs through her offspring.
The word “peacock” does not actually apply to both male and female birds. It’s only the males that are called peacocks, while the females are called peahens. Together, the collective name for them is “peafowl.”
There are just three different types of species in the peafowl family. Two of these originate in Asia, and the other is of African descent.
The African species is called the Congo peafowl and originated in the Congo Basin. From Asia, the blue (Indian) peafowl and green peafowl.
These birds first lived within forests and rainforests, which remains their most comfortable and natural habitat.
When they are domesticated, some will live up to 50 years. However, in the wild, where life is riskier, peacocks and peahens generally live up to 20 years.
While peacocks are not considered an endangered species, the Congo peafowl, in particular, has been listed as vulnerable.
The peacock can be seen displaying its bright, beautiful feathers mostly during the breeding season in the Spring.
When the breeding time comes around each year, the peacock will try to impress the peahen as much as possible. Apart from displaying his feathers and train, he will also guard his territory and make a loud noise to ward off other males.
For more than 2,000 years, peacocks have been kept in captivity around the world either for entertainment purposes or religion.
In areas of Asia where the peacock is hunted, they are not often seen and remain wary and shy of their surroundings. However, the Indian peacock is protected in many parts of Asia for personal or religious reasons.
The logo of the NBC television network in the USA has taken the form of a colorful peacock since 1956.
While a group of any peafowl is called a harem, a group of females is known as a bevy, a muster, or a party when they are in groups without the males.
When peacocks are first born, they don’t have tails, and in fact, don’t look very impressive until they are around 3 years old.
Every year, the male peafowl will replenish his feathers – no wonder the color always stays so good!
If the feathers of a peacock still weren’t impressive enough, they are covered in tiny crystals, which play a large part in attracting the females.
The collective term for these birds is “peafowl.” The males are “peacocks” and the females are “peahens.” The babies are called “peachicks.”
The male peachicks don’t start growing their showy trains until about age three. In fact, it’s hard to tell the sex of a peachick because they’re nearly identical to their mothers. At around six months, the males will begin to change color. The Congo peafowl doesn’t have the train of feathers.
The peahen will lay an egg each day until she fills her nest with 3-7 eggs. She’ll also lay unfertilized “decoy” eggs that she’ll place away from the nest to confuse predators. The eggs hatch in about 28 days.
The most popular of all the colored mutations is the one without color. The whole bird is pure white due to the cells lacking the ability to make any pigment whatsoever called leucism.
The term “peacock” is commonly used to refer to birds of both sexes. Technically, only males are peacocks. Females are peahens, and together, they are called peafowl.
Peafowl are members of the pheasant family.
There are 3 peafowl species; two Asiatic species and one African species.
The Indian peafowl or blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) originally of India and Sri Lanka, the green peafowl (Pavo muticus) of Myanmar, Indochina, and Java and the Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis) native to the Congo Basin.
Peafowl can live in the wild for up to 20 years. Domesticated peafowl have been known to live as long as 40 to 50 years.
Peacocks are a larger sized bird with a length from bill to tail of 140 to 160 cm (55 to 63 in) and to the end of a fully grown tail as much as 180 to 250 cm (70 to 98 in) and weigh 3.8–6 kg (8–13 lb).
The females, or peahens, are smaller at 90-110 cm (35-43 in) in length and weigh 2.8–4 kg (6–8.8 lb).
The peacock has some of the brightest feathers and one of the most impressive courting displays of any bird in the world.
Both sexes of all species have bare patches of skin around their eyes and a funny crest on the top of their head made of feathers arranged in a fan shape. The Indian peafowl’s crest looks like little dots on the end of sticks!
The function of the peacock’s elaborate train has been debated for over a century. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin found it a puzzle, hard to explain through ordinary natural selection. His later explanation, sexual selection, is widely but not universally accepted.
Multiple hypotheses attempt to explain the evolution of female choice. Some of these suggest direct benefits to females, such as protection, shelter, or nuptial gifts that sway the female’s choice of mate. Another hypothesis is that females choose mates with good genes.
Peafowl such as the blue peacock have been admired by humans and kept as pets for thousands of years.
In the Hindu religion, the peafowl is a sacred bird, because the spots on the peacock’s tail symbolize the eyes of the gods.
Peacocks are mentioned in the Bible as one of the most precious items brought from Asia by King Solomon’s ships.
Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death, so it became a symbol of immortality.
The functions of the elaborate iridescent colouration and large “train” of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate.
Charles Darwin suggested that they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection.
Peacocks naturally shed their feathers every year after mating season, when they can be gathered by those who want to keep a collection of the brightly patterned plumage.
A peacock’s tail feathers can reach up to six feet long and make up about 60 percent of its body length.
Despite these odd proportions, the bird flies just fine, if not very far.
It’s common for captive peafowl to buck the iridescent trend for all white feathers. This is called leucism, and it’s due to a genetic mutation that causes loss of pigmentation.
These peafowl are often mistaken for being albino, but instead of having red eyes, animals with leucism retain their normal eye color.
The birds were plucked, roasted and then re-dressed in their feathers to appear in their original live state on the dinner table.
Microscopic “crystal-like structures” that reflect different wavelengths of light depending on how they’re spaced, resulting in bright fluorescent colors. Hummingbirds and shimmering butterflies have mastered a similar visual effect on their own wings.
A female peacock has special sensors in her crest that allow her to feel the vibrations of mate who may be located far away.
The term ‘peafowl’ is common for three species – blue or Indian peafowl, green peafowl, and Congo peafowl.
Males are called peacocks, females are peahens, and babies are called peachicks.
A group of any peafowl is called harem. A group of peahens is called bevy, muster, or party.
The male peachicks don’t develop their feathers until they turn three years old. It is due to this reason it becomes hard to tell the gender of peachicks. When the males turn six months old, their color starts changing.
The meat of peacock was a delicacy in medieval times. After roasting, their feathers were put back in the same form to give the guests an appearance of a live bird. However, lucky for the peacocks, they didn’t taste good. Their meat was discouraged by physicians as well for their “not easily digestible” quality.
The peafowls are social animals. They like to bond with humans as well. Just like our pets, they can be attached to a person and be altruistic towards them. Needless to say, they don’t like being alone. They travel in a group of 8 or 10.
They have four toes on each foot. Three of the toes point forward and the fourth one point backward. It helps the peacock to hold the branches. They don’t have webbed feet and hence they can’t swim.
The peacocks use their feathers to attract mates. The better the quality of feathers, the higher is the chance of being selected by peahen.
These birds are pretty intelligent. Sometimes peacocks make fake copulatory calls to attract females. They do this to convince other females about their high sexual activity which indicates genetic fertility than their counterparts.
A peacock is an omnivorous bird. It eats plants, insects, fruits, reptiles, amphibians, etc.
Indian peacock is seen in India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. It is considered to be extinct in Bangladesh.
Peacocks have been kept in captivity since 2000 years ago.
The Indian peacock is not considered as endangered or vulnerable but Congo peafowl is listed as vulnerable and green peafowl is listed as endangered by IUCN.
You can find a bare patch of skin without any feathers around the eyes of any peafowl – it is one of the characteristic features of a peafowl.
They have a lifespan of up to 20 years in the wild whereas they can have a lifespan of 50 years in captivity.
Peacock is the national bird of India. Gray peacock is the national bird of Burma or Myanmar. Indian peacock is the only species to display its plumage in a grandeur fashion. Other species just have few feathers.
Peacocks love to play. When they play, they run and follow only and only one direction i.e. clockwise direction. Once they get tired, they just suddenly stop and start walking at a normal pace.
Peacocks are beautiful but they make loud and screeching sounds that are not really pleasant to our ears. According to some studies, peacocks sing during mating season to attract females.
Did you know Alexander the Great took peacocks to his Mediterranean territories and he even penalized the people who tried to catch them?
Peacocks hold some significance in almost every culture like Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, etc.
The Indian peafowls can grow up to 120 centimeters in length. The green peafowls can grow up to 300 centimeters in length. The Congo peafowls can grow up to 70 centimeters in length (all measurements including the tail). Indian peafowls weigh up to 6 kilograms. Green peafowls weigh up to 5 kilograms.
The main predators of peacocks are tigers, mongoose, leopards, dogs, housecats, etc. Peacocks (other than parents) are a danger for peachicks.
Peahens will lay anywhere from 3 to 8 eggs, which incubate for about four weeks before hatching. The name of a baby peafowl is a peachick. The peachicks are able to walk and forage on their own right after they hatch, but they are very vulnerable. It takes two weeks before they can flap up into a tree for safety, where they crowd on both sides of their mother and are covered by her wings.
At four weeks, the young grow crests, and at two months they look just like their mother (both males and females) but are only half her size. It is not until their second year that the males achieve their mature coloring.
White peacocks are not albinos, but rather a subspecies of blue peacocks created by a genetic mutation. They have a different condition called leucism which causes an overall reduction in different types of pigment. This can result in the complete lack of coloration of their plumage, while preserving normal eye colour. By contrast, true albino peafowl have a complete lack of melanin, resulting in the albino’s characteristic red or pink eyes. Leucistic peachicks are born yellow and become fully white as they mature.

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