The Peacock Courtship Dance

Male Indian Peafowl use Their Beautiful Trains to Attract Peahens

Dec 6, 2007

A Peacock Displaying his Train, Jessica Ward

The display feathers of the male Indian Peafowl are an amazing spectacle. The peacock with the best display attracts a harem of peahens with his courtship dance.

It’s difficult to imagine anything more visually stunning than a blue peacock (Indian Peafowl) displaying his train during the peafowl breeding season. Indeed, its sole purpose is to attract a mate. Seeing a peahen approaching, the peacock lifts his train—a cluster of long tail coverts that spread out to form a fan several feet high and extending down to the ground on both sides. The train feathers are iridescent blue and green, with an eye-like spot of brilliant blue, green, and orange, at the end. Each feather is a work of art in itself—together they make a spectacular backdrop for the sapphire blue peacock and his carefully orchestrated courtship dance:

During the breeding season, peacocks choose special places to perform their courtship dance and they tend to return to the same location year after year. Other males may be doing the same thing close by and peahens will window-shop—the peacock with the best display wins.
When a peahen comes close enough, the peacock turns his back and brings his train erect, displaying the underlying tail feathers and his dark wings, which he flutters rapidly, From this angle, the brilliant colours of the display feathers can’t be seen—the bird is predominantly grey and brown. The peacock steps from side to side and sometimes moves forward or backward a few steps.
When the peahen comes closer still, the peacock backs up towards her, and when she avoids him, he turns, revealing all his colour and holding his wings still. He then drops the great fan down on top of the female. It quivers, making a rustling sound.
The peahen may mate with the peacock, or she may simply walk away or stand still, whereupon the male starts over, turning his back again and resuming the rapid fluttering of his wings. The peacock can hold his fan of display feathers up for a very long time.
For reasons that are not well understood, peahens tend to mate with peacocks with the most eye-spots.

Peafowl Harems and Groups

Because peahens prefer the most ornamented male, all the peahens in a group will often mate with the same peacock, forming a harem during the breeding and nesting season. (At other times of year, peafowl gather together in mixed groups that may contain family members.) Peahens build nests on the ground, lay three to five eggs and raise their peachicks without any help from the peacock.

Young Peafowl

Peachicks are mature and ready to mate at two years of age. The display feathers of peacocks, however, continue to grow longer and more ornate with each passing year until the bird is about six. Thus, a peacock’s chance of acquiring a harem increases as he gets older. It is possible that peahens favor the most beautiful males because they are also the most experienced males with the best survival skills – a trait that might be passed on to the next generation.

Watch a video of a peacock displaying and dancing on Bird Cinema.

Sources:

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

“Peafowl: Family Phasianidae.” Hopkins, Craig. The United Peafowl Association Newsletter, Dec 1997.

The copyright of the article The Peacock Courtship Dance in Birds is owned by Rosemary Drisdelle. Permission to republish The Peacock Courtship Dance in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.