Peacocks:

Impressive feathered beauties

The avian world is full of feathered beauties that mesmerize us with their vibrantly hued plumage and their melodious calls.And so it may prove difficult to rank these birds on a 1-10 scale since many of us would have our own preferences when it comes to selecting the most attractive birds. However, the male peafowl or the peacock as it is popularly called is sure to be placed high in the scale due to its beautiful fan-like tail.

Most of you may have seen the peacock proudly strut and dance displaying its captivating tail feathers of iridescent hues that change and shimmer in the light .These tail feathers, or coverts, spread out in a distinctive train which is more than 60 per cent of the bird's total body length .

They are adorned with colourful "eye" markings of blue, gold, red, and other hues.Even if you have not seen this eye catching display you are sure to have seen the beautiful peacock feathers which are used in many religious rituals, especially at Kataragama.

Many of you may have seen these impressive feathered beauties or at least heard of them but you may not know many details about them. So, today let's enhance your knowledge about this species of bird called the peafowl which belongs to the pheasant family. There are three species of peafowl; Indian peafowl or Blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) which is native to South Asia, but has been introduced and is semi-feral in many other parts of the world , the Green peafowl and the Congo peafowl.

There are several colour mutations of Indian peafowl. These very rarely occur in the wild, but selective breeding has made them common in captivity. The leucistic white peafowl and the Black-shouldered or Japanned mutation were initially considered as a subspecies.

The blue peacock lives in India and Sri Lanka, while the green peacock is found in Java and Myanmar (Burma).The more distinct and little-known species, the Congo peacock, inhabits African rain forests.The Congo peafowl is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as 'vulnerable .' - (At risk because of their natural declining numbers) are facing high-risk in their natural surroundings. The Green peafowl is listed as 'endangered'. - In the immediate probability of becoming extinct and require protection to exist.

A male peafowl is called a peacock and the female a peahen but the term peacock is commonly used to refer to both species by many. The male (peacock) Indian peafowl has iridescent blue-green or green coloured plumage; metallic blue on the crown, the feathers of the head being short and curled. The fan-shaped crest on the head is made of feathers with bare black shafts and tipped with blush-green webbing. A white stripe above the eye and a crescent shaped white patch below the eye are formed by bare white skin. The sides of the head have iridescent greenish blue feathers. The back has scaly bronze-green feathers with black and copper markings. The scapular and the wings are buff and barred in black, the primaries are chestnut and the secondaries are black. The tail is dark brown and the "train" is made up by elongated upper tail coverts (more than 200 feathers but the actual tail has only 20 feathers) and nearly all of these feathers end with an elaborate eye-spot. A few of the outer feathers lack the spot and end in a crescent shaped black tip. The underside is dark glossy greenshading into blackish under the tail. The thighs are buff coloured. The male has a spur on the leg above the hind toe.

The peahen is very dowdy compared to the peacock ,with mottled brown feathers .The feathers have a mixture of dull green, brown, and grey. She lacks the long upper tail coverts of the male which has earned him great fame. The adult peahen has a rufous-brown head with a crest as in the male but the tips chestnut edged with green. The upper body is brownish with paler mottling. The primaries, secondaries and tail are dark brown. The lower neck is metallic green and the breast feathers are dark brown glossed with green. The rest of the underparts are whitish. Downy young are pale buff with a dark brown mark on the nape connecting with the eyes.Young males looks like the females but the wings are chestnut coloured The female can also display her plumage to ward off female competition or signal danger to her young.

Both males and females have a crest atop the head. However the crests of peacocks differ according to the species:Indian and Green peacocks have a crest made of feathers arranged in a fan shape,the Indian peafowl's crest looks like little dots on the end of sticks and the Congo peafowl has vertical white elongated hair-like feathers on its crown . Indian peafowl are widely distributed in the wild across South Asia and protected in many areas.

A peahen

A peacock dances near a peahen

The peacock's large train is said to be used in mating rituals and courtship displays. It can be arched into a magnificent fan that reaches across the bird's back and touches the ground on either side.Females are believed to choose their mates according to the size, colour, and quality of their outrageous feather trains.Suitable males may gather harems of several females, each of which will lay three to five eggs. When a male is displaying its tail feathers females do not appear to show any interest and usually continue their foraging.The peak season in southern India to see the peacock display its fan-like tail is April to May and June in northern India. In Sri Lanka we can see the peacok dance to attract a mate from January to March .When it is time to reproduce the peahen builds a nest that is a shallow scrape in the ground lined with leaves, sticks and other debris. Nests are sometimes placed on buildings and in earlier times the peahens have been recorded using the disused nest platforms of the White-rumped Vultures. The clutch consists of 4-8 fawn to buff white eggs which are incubated only by the female. The eggs take about 28 days to hatch. Downy young may sometimes climb on their mother's back and the female may carry them in flight to a safe tree branch.

The Green peafowl appears different 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 similar to the male, only having shorter upper tail coverts and less iridescence. It is difficult to tell a juvenile male from an adult female.

Indian and Green peacocks have bare patches of skin around their eyes. The peafowl in general are forest birds that nest on the ground but roost in trees;they will fly up into tall trees to roost In fact, wild peafowl often roost in forest trees and gather in groups called parties.They are omnivorous and eat most plant parts, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians. Generally they are known to bet terrestrial feeders. They are found mainly on the ground in open forest or cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but will also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. They move in in small groups when foraging and will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying. They are fond of dust-bathing and at dusk, groups walk in single file to a favourite waterhole to drink. When disturbed, they usually escape by running and rarely take to flight. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas, often indicate the presence of a predator such as a tiger.Nearly seven different call variants have been identified in the peacocks apart from six alarm calls that are commonly produced by both sexes.

The male peafowl is a large bird with a length from bill to tail of 100 to 115 cm (40 to 46 inches) and to the end of a fully grown train as much as 195 to 225 cm (78 to 90 inches).It weighs 4-6 kg (8.8-13.2 lbs). The females, or peahens, are smaller at around 95 cm (38 inches) in length and weigh 2.75 - 4 kg (6-8.8 lbs) They are highly sociable creatures and require companionship. Males generally have a harem of 2 - 5 females.

Adult peafowl can usually escape ground predators by flying into trees. Leopards are able to ambush them however, Foraging in groups provides some safety as there are more eyes to look out for predators.They are sometimes hunted by large birds of prey such as the Crested Hawk-Eagle and Rock Eagle-owl. Chicks are prone to predation.

Adults living near human habitations are sometimes hunted by domestic dogs or by humans in some areas .

In captivity, birds have been known to live for 23 years but it is estimated that they live for only about 15 years in the wild. Prominent in many cultures, the peacock has been used in numerous iconic representations, including being designated the national bird of India in 1963.

The peacock, known as Mayura in Sanskrit, has enjoyed a fabled place in India since and is frequently depicted in temple art, mythology, poetry, folk-music and traditions.In our country too the peacock is greatly admired for its beauty and also given pride of place at Kataragama.

Fact file:

* Technically, only males are peacocks. Females are peahens, and together, they are called peafowl.

* The peacock tail ("train") is not the tail quill feathers but the highly elongated upper tail coverts.

* Like a cupped hand behind the ear the erect tail-fan of the male helps direct sound to the ears.

* Seven year study of free living peacocks, conducted in Japan came to the conclusion that female peahens are virtually indifferent towards the male display of plumage.

* In Hinduism, the Peacock is associated with Saraswati, a deity representing benevolence, patience, kindness, compassion and knowledge. Peacock is also the mount of Hindu God of war Murugan. The peacock is the steed of Kartikay, the brother of Ganesha.

* In Greco-Roman mythology the peacock is identified with the goddess Hera (Juno). The eyes upon the peacock's tail comes from Argus whose hundred eyes were placed upon the peacock's feathers by the goddess in memory of his role as the guard of Io, a lover of Zeus that Hera had punished. The eyes are said to symbolise the vault of heaven and the "eyes" of the stars.

* In Babylonia and Persia the peacock is seen as a guardian to royalty, and is often seen in engravings upon the thrones of royalty.

*In some cultures the peacock is also a symbol of pride or vanity, due to the way the bird struts and shows off its plumage.

* Only a peacock (male peafowl) has a colorful train.

* The collective name for a group of peahens is a harem while the collective name for a group of males is a party. A family of peacocks is called a bevy. The names given to babies are chicks.

*The Latin genus name Pavo and the Anglo-Saxon Pawe (from which the word "Peacock" is derived) are believed to be echoic in their origin and based on the usual call of the bird. The species name cristatus refers to the crest.

*The earliest usage of the word in written English is from around 1300 and has spelling variants . The current spelling was established in the late 17th century.

* It was Chaucer (1343â€"1400 who ) used the word to refer to a proud and ostentatious person in his simile "proud a pekok"(A spelling variant) in Troilus and Criseyde (Book I, line 210)