Indian Peafowl
| Indian Peafowl Conservation status: Secure | ||||||||||||||
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 An Indian Peacock displaying. | ||||||||||||||
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| Pavo cristatus Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus, is a species of bird in the peafowl genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. The Indian Peafowl is a resident breeder in India and Sri Lanka.
It is a forest bird which nests on the ground laying 4-8 eggs. It eats mainly seeds, but also some insects and fruit.
The Indian Peacock has beautiful iridescent blue-green plumage. His tail feathers have a series of eyes that are best seen when it is fanned. The female plumage is a mixture of dull green, grey and iridescent blue, with the greenish-grey predominating. Females lack the long tails of the male. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen.
Peafowl are most notable for the male's extravagant tail, a result of sexual selection, which it displays as part of courtship. The peacock's rituals include the display of its startling plumage and a loud call, as heard in this video (491KB in MPEG-4 format).
Peacocks are often kept as domesticated animals for decoration.
This species will hybridise with the closely related Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus).
Reference
- Birds of India by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, ISBN 0-691-04910-6
- Steven K. Blau (Jan. 2004), “Light as a Feather: Structural Elements Give Peacock Plumes Their Color (http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-57/iss-1/p18.html)", Physics Today 57 (1), 18–20.
- World Birds Taxonomic List (http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/gall.html)
as of 2003-02-21
de:Pfau nl:Pauw fr:Paon