Who can resist seeing something beautiful? Rarely anyone. Yes, most of us instantly admire and adore its beauty!
Thanks, to an interesting trip to the Bandipur-Mudumalai forest range in the summer of 2019, my love for peacocks blossomed. Since then, I have been researching more about peacock and here are some interesting facts for you:
1) Peacocks, the beautiful bird, are basically males. The peahen, one without feathers and less beautiful is a female. The young ones are called as peachicks.
2) Together, they are called peafowls. A group of peahens is called a bevy and a group of peacocks is called a PRIDE!
3) Can you find a peacock in every city? Nope! Peafowls are found only in few countries in Asia and Africa.
4) Blue peacocks live in Congo, India and Sri Lanka while green peacocks live in Indonesia and Myanmar. There are white peacocks too and are mostly found in zoos.
5) Peacocks are unique because of its colorful and beautiful crest and feathers. The tail (which is referred as train) with all the beautiful feathers makes 60% of the body of a peacock.
6) Unlike other beings, peafowls do not get their colors from pigmentation alone. Its a combination of pigments and photonic crystals that makes the feathers to reflect different wavelengths of light depending upon the angle of the light and the spacing of the crystals.
7) One thing they love to do is dance in the rain beautifully and when they do, they fan their tail feathers in almost a circular shape.
8) Peachicks are very playful – running around in circles, playing hide and seek and chasing the peachick that has longer tails are their favorites!
9) The young ones are not as beautiful as a peacock. They take around 3 years to gain the long feathers.
10) Despite their immense size, they are one of the largest flying birds. They usually fly to the top of the trees to sleep. However, they can’t fly long distances.
11) But when it comes to building their nests, they build it on the ground. They dig the ground and lay around 5 – 6 eggs at a time.
12) Peacocks are omnivorous - eats plants and animals. They eat small creatures like centipedes, termites, crickets, ants, rats, and mice.
13) Peacocks, specifically the green ones, are aggressive. They hate snakes – if they see one, they attack it and eat it!
14) There are around 11 different sounds that a peacock can make. In the rains, they tend to make meowing sounds to indicate threatening clouds.They have a call that carries for a long distance and sounds like “may-AWE, may-AWE.”
15) Peafowls have a life span of around 20 years in the forests. But domesticated peafowls can live up to 50 years.
16) However, in India, one cannot domesticate / have peacocks as a pet as it is designated as the national bird of India.
17) India chose the peacock as the national bird because of the diverse colors it possesses. The feathers which contains colors such as blue, green, brown, copper, yellow, etc are synonymous with the diversity of India in terms of culture, geography, languages, etc.
18) In Hindu culture, the god of war - Karthikeya, also known as Lord Murga is said to use peacock as his vehicle. At times, peacocks are shown carrying Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswathi, but the peacocks aren’t their vehicles.
19) Globally, in Burma the grey peacock stands as the national symbol of Burma; in China, as per Feng Shui, peacocks are protectors. In the Bible, peacocks are mentioned as one of the most precious items brought from Asia by King Solomon’s ships. Also, in Greece, peacocks are a considered as a symbol of immortality, because ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl does not decay after death.
20) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has declared green peacocks as endangered species as their numbers have decreased significantly and the Congo peafowls as vulnerable.
I believe you enjoyed reading the above facts as much as I enjoyed learning about them. I request you to share any other fact that you think I must add on to this list!
PS: The image carries a picture of a hybrid white-blue peacock!