Facts About Indian Peacocks

Pavo cristatus is the Familiar Peafowl from Southern India

© Rosemary Drisdelle

The beautiful Blue Peafowl, often simply called the peacock, originated in India. We are learning more about its natural history, habitat, feeding, and breeding habits.

The Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), also called the Blue Peafowl or Common Peafowl, is native to India and Sri Lanka. It is the national bird of India. Because of its legendary beauty, it was domesticated more than 2000 years ago, and has since been exported to many other countries. The familiar bird with the beautiful display feathers is actually the male, or peacock—the female bird is called a peahen, and young are called peachicks.

Peafowl are classified with the pheasants in the taxonomic family Phasianidae, and are thus related to partridges, quail, chickens, and turkeys. There is one other peafowl species in the genus Pavo: Pavo muticus, the Green Peafowl.

Blue Peafowl Natural History and Habitat Facts

Peacocks and peahens can live for at least 15 years in captivity, but they probably do not live as long in the wild:

Blue Peafowl Feeding Facts

Domestic peafowl are valued in India because they eat young cobras, thus keeping the numbers of these venomous snakes down in human communities. The birds are relatively easy to feed:

Courtship and Breeding Facts

Peafowl will breed at about two years of age; however, the peacocks’ magnificent display feathers continue to grow until the birds are six years old. Peahens tend to prefer the peacock with the most spots on his feathers, so older males have more breeding success:

The blue Indian Peafowl is a hardy bird that can adapt to cooler climates and varied habitat. In a number of locations where they were introduced as ornamental domestic birds, they have escaped and now also live in the wild.

Other common and interesting birds:

Lesser Flamingo - Pink Wader

Facts About Hummingbirds

Facts About Pigeons and Doves

Sources:

Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003

“Peafowl.” Honolulu Zoo

“Peafowl in Arcadia.” The City of Arcadia


The copyright of the article Facts About Indian Peacocks in Birds is owned by Rosemary Drisdelle. Permission to republish Facts About Indian Peacocks must be granted by the author in writing.


Peacock Feathers, Alfonso Diaz
Peacock, Rosemary Drisdelle
Peahen with Peachick, Rosemary Drisdelle
   


Post this Article to facebook Add this Article to del.icio.us! Digg this Article furl this Article Add this Article to Reddit Add this Article to Technorati Add this Article to Newsvine Add this Article to Windows Live Add this Article to Yahoo Add this Article to StumbleUpon Add this Article to BlinkLists Add this Article to Spurl Add this Article to Google Add this Article to Ask Add this Article to Squidoo