Peacock Information and Facts

Peacock Information and Facts


Peacocks are native to India, but can live in many parts of the world in captivity. There are many different kinds of peacocks including the Indian Blue, Black Shouldered, Congo, Green, and White peacocks. White peacocks are the same as the Indian Blue in size and behavior, but are white.

In the wild, male Peacocks generally accumulate a harem of 2 - 5 females. However, in captivity, they are usually satisfied with one. The male has an extremely long train (commonly called his tail) which is NOT actually his tail. The train serves as a cover for the actual tail, which is brown. The train actually sprouts from the center of the back. Peacocks grow to 7' from tip of beak to end of train.


Males are called Peacocks and females are called Peahens. The collective term for both male and female is Peafowl. Peacocks need a great amount of companionship. If you are interested in purchasing one, you will want to get two unless you want a very unhappy bird. I have had peacocks fly away looking for their mates after the peahen dies. Peacocks love to be with one another and close to each other.

The main purpose of the male's train is to entrance the female to get her to mate with him. He spreads his train and displays an incredible fan of beautiful blues, greens, violets, reds, oranges and yellows. Every area of the train changes color when struck by different angles of light. The male vibrates his tail rapidly at the female in an attempt to impress her. He shakes his wings and turns from left to right. However, even with this awesome display, it is very rare that we ever see them mate. The female usually pretends not to notice the male. When she is ready to lay eggs, she will decide to mate with the male. Later, an egg fairly larger than a chicken egg is layed. After 28 days of incubation, the egg hatches. There is no fixed amount of eggs that the peahen will lay. She will also sometimes lay decoy eggs away from the nest to distract predators.

After the 28 (sometimes shorter) days of incubation, the chick hatches and looks somewhat disgusting. It is still covered with substances from the inside of the egg.

The egg left behind by the chick is quite gross-looking on the inside. There is a yellowish-brown membrane left behind called the alontoias membrane. This is material that the peachick's (as they are called) body has digested and does not need.

When the chick is not even one day old, it can walk, eat and drink on it's own. Baby peacocks are born with flight feathers already on their wings and can fly by the time they are one week old. They need to be able to do this to fly into trees at night.

Peacock posted

Below, you will learn all about the Peacock Information Center, the history and the services we provide. Be sure to visit our links on the left and right side of this page. Hope to hear from you soon and visit all of our pages often as new things are posted everyday!

In 1980, when Dennis Fett and his wife Debra J. Buck co-founders and co-owners of the Peacock Information Center near Minden, Iowa got married, they never had any idea what kind of journey the next 29 years would take them. When Deb's pet pig, Charly, suddenly died, Dennis asked her what she wanted next and she said peacocks. The rest is history with a record two hours and thirty-five minutes of television airtime featuring their life and work with peacocks/peafowl.

This amazing record of television air time started with the debut of their first self published peacock book titled, The Wacky World of Peafowl released in 1986. This book is now in its 7th printing and has sold 8,000+ plus copies to date and is still selling well today. This book became an overnight success in 1986 because there was no information on the subject at that time written by actual breeders. This book was self-published long before the Internet was up and running for the general public in 1986 and it sold out in several months.

In 1989, Fett woke up in the middle of the night with a musical melody in his head. After transcribing it to music paper he asked his wife, Deb, to write the words to it. Their musical creation, "The Wacky Peacock" gained national attention. They were invited to be a guest on a national talk show making their national television debut on the Lifetime channel show called "Attitudes" starring Linda Dano, in New York City in 1990. Fett had a Bachelor of Music Degree and studied clarinet for six years with Professor Joseph Allard at the Juliard School of Music, New York City. Besides his peafowl endeavors, he is in his eighth year teaching elementary vocal music and elementary band in Northwest Iowa.

Soon after their national television debut, the thirst for more information on peacocks/peafowl had the couple self publish a second book in 1990. The Wacky World of Peafowl Volume 2. What made this second book even more of a success is that Fett & Buck had enough prepaid orders to pay the printing bill before going to press. This book is now in its 4th printing and still selling well.

In 1991, Fett & Buck started the Peafowl Report, the first and only bimonthly publication featuring everything peacocks/peafowl. This publication is now in its 17th year of publishing.

In 1996, Buck & Fett created the first and only web site on the Internet featuring peacocks/peafowl information, Their site was given the prestigious USA TODAY HOT Site award in 1997. Today, peafowl.com receives 6,000+ page views each week.

Much to the surprise of Fett & Buck, the subject of peacocks/peafowl had garnished lots of attention from the printed media getting the attention of an astounding 29 newspapers and 44 magazines worldwide featuring their work with peafowl/peacocks such as: USA Today, New York Times, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Guidepost, Organic Gardening, Animal Fair and many more ! (See http://www.peafowl.com/resume.htm for a detailed list). The New York Times says "Dennis Fett has an encyclopedic knowledge of peafowl." In addition, Fett and Buck were featured in Writer's Digest Magazine as being one of the three most successful self-published authors in the USA. These credentials will assure that you will be provided with the most comprehensive information anywhere!

Not to be outdone, the work of Fett & Buck was also featured on 24 radio shows/stations all over the USA.

The colorful image of peacocks also caught the attention of 11 national/worldwide TV stations/networks and 11 local television stations, such as: Good Morning America, NBC Today Show, Hard Copy, Attitudes talk show, (Lifetime Cable Talk Show) Wildlife/Human Nature (Australian worldwide syndicated) CBS's Prime Time Pets, Real News for Kids (syndicated kids show)

Even with this record, Fett & Buck have not been sitting back and resting on past works, as they released the Wacky World Of Peafowl music video on DVD in June of 2006. This funny and humorous music video tells how the couple started their life with peacocks/peafowl featuring the song they wrote.

In addition, Fett and Buck self produced and released The Wacky World Of Peafowl DVD. The Wacky World Of Peafowl DVD is a companion to their two best selling peafowl books and Peafowl report newsletter. The DVD runs approximately 83 minutes long and gives an instructional and visual view on raising peacocks/peafowl. It was produced, written, directed and filmed by the couple right on their own peacock farm in rural Minden, Iowa.

The Wacky World Of Peafowl DVD includes the following: the peahen's egg laying process, the candling of hatching eggs, egg hatching and a fascinating view of a peachick developing in the egg showing the embryo moving inside the egg, the peahen's nesting habits, a cat attacking a peahen and her peachicks, brooder house for peachicks, types of incubators for hatching eggs, species, the fighting peafowl, feather production and molting feathers, watering peafowl in summer and winter, feeding your peafowl and the kind of feed to use, peacock and peahen sounds, peacocks mating peahens, pens and housing size. The DVD concludes showing how peafowl can survive winter in the snow!

If we still have your attention, the above information on our work since 1980 will assure you that our 2 peafowl books, The Wacky World of Peafowl, Volume 1 & 2, the Peafowl Report newsletter, and The Wacky World of Peafowl DVD will provide you with the most comprehensive information on the subject of peacocks/peafowl found anywhere!

Although Fett does not have a poultry science degree or formal training in poultry, his 33+ years as a music educator, along with his 29 years of first hand experience in raising peafowl, he has educated 1000's each month on peafowl. He did this on his web site, peafowl.com, and with his two books, Wacky World of Peafowl, Volume 1 & 2, The Wacky World of Peafowl DVD and his Peafowl Report newsletter. With all of the above work on peafowl, Fett's reasearch has him holding the record of writing & publishing more on the subject of peacocks/peafowl than anyone in the USA and the world.

In addition to peafowl, Fett is a Music Educator and plays clarinet. He is also known as the Clarinet Playing Peacock Farmer. He plays a novelty clarinet act at all his peacock programs. This act has gained Fett national attention.

On December 19, 2008, Dennis Fett made an appearance on the Tonight Show starring Jay Leno playing his disappearing clarinet act in the comedy segment called "Does This Impress Ed Asner". This act requires Fett to play his clarinet all together and then gradually disassembles his clarinet taking it apart piece by piece, ending up playing only the mouthpiece.

PEACOCK

The peafowl are the three species of bird in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are most notable for the male's extravagant tail, a result of sexual selection, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen.

The male (peacock) has beautiful iridescent blue-green or green coloured plumage. His tail feathers have a series of eyes that are best seen when the tail is fanned. Both species have a head crest.

The female (peahen) has a mixture of dull green, brown and grey in her plumage. She lacks the long tail of the male, but has a crest.

Many of the brilliant colors of the peacock plumage are due to an optical interference phenomenon (Bragg reflection) based on (nearly) periodic nanostructures found in the barbules (fiber-like components) of the feathers.

Different colors correspond to different length scales of the periodic structures. For brown feathers, a mixture of red and blue is required?one color is created by the periodic structure, while the other is a created by a Fabry-Perot interference peak from reflections off the outermost and innermost boundaries of the periodic structure.

Such interference-based structural color is especially important in producing the peacock's iridescent hues (which shimmer and change with viewing angle), since interference effects depend upon the angle of light, unlike chemical pigments.

In captivity, the peafowl has produced many plumage color variations. Those are mutations that have been secured by selective breeding. They included: white bodied, barred winged, white eyed, pied, cameo, charcoal, bronze, opal, peach, midnight, purple, and any combination of these variations

The Indian Peafowl is native to India and Sri Lanka. The Green Peafowl breeds from Myanmar east to Java. The IUCN lists the Green Peafowl as vulnerable to extinction due to hunting and a reduction in extent and quality of habitat. The two Pavo species will hybridize.

The peafowl are forest birds which nest on the ground. They eat mainly seeds, but also some insects and fruit. The Pavo peafowl are terrestrial feeders, but roost in trees. They are reluctant fliers other than to access their roosts

PEACOCK

Peacock, one of the most beautiful birds in the world, is found inhabiting a few countries in India. Literally taken to mean the male species, the term ‘peacock’ is usually used by people to denote both the sex. In the technical sense, peafowl is the neutral word of the species, with peacock referring to the male and peahen to the female. There are basically two species of peafowl. One is the Indian Peafowl, found residing in the Indian subcontinent only. The other is Green Peafowl, native to Asian countries right from Burma east to Java. While, the former is monotypic (no subspecies), the latter can be divided into 3 subspecies. To get more interesting facts and amazing information on peacock, read on.

Facts about Peacock

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Galliformes

Family: Phasianidae

Genus: Pavo

Species: Pavo cristatus (Indian Peafowl) and Pavo muticus (Green Peafowl)

Subspecies: Nil (Pavo cristatus), 3 (Pavo muticus)

Length (without train): 35 to 50 inches (90 to 130 cm)

Length (with train): 5 ft (1.5 m)

Beak: 1 inch

Weight: 4 to 6 kg (8.75 to 13 lbs)

Diet: Omnivorous

Natural Habitat: Asian countries

Age: 20 years

Age of Maturity: 8 to 10 months

Gestation Period: 28 days

Number of Eggs: 3 to 5

Interesting & Amazing Information on Peacocks

• Peacocks eat plant parts, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles and amphibians.
• Indian Peacock is the national bird of India.
• Peacocks are polygamous by nature. In the wild, male Peacocks generally have a harem of 2 - 5 females.
• Peacocks have a significant need for companionship. Alone, they can get heartbroken.
• Only a peacock (male) has a colorful train.
• The main use of the beautiful train (tail) of peacock is to gain the attention of the peahen and get her to mate with him.
• The train of a peacock makes up more than 60 percent of his total length.
• A peacock’s train can be arched into a splendid fan, which reaches across its back and touches the ground on either side.
• It is believed that a peahen choose its mates according to the size, color, and quality of their trains.
• Keeping in mind the combined length of a peacock’s (male) train and its large wingspan, it is one of the largest flying birds.
• Every portion of a peacock’s train changes color when it is struck by different angles of light.
• The chick of a peacock can walk, eat and drink on its own, even when it is hardly a day old.
• Peacocks fly into trees to protect themselves from predators as well as to rest from holding their trains off the ground.
• A family of peacocks is called a bevy, while a group of peacocks is known as a party.
• At night, peacocks prefer to roost in trees or other high places.

peacock

A male peacock in full plumage is among the most beautiful and spectacular pheasants in the world. The gorgeous Indian Blue Peacock which is shown on the Gazette magazine cover at left, is affordable and very popular to keep and breed. There are also several mutations and many breeds of this species that have been developed and which are also very popular. The gorgeous green peacock is a rarer type of peafowl. The green peacock is larger, higher standing, and a brighter bird with a long, straight crest. See a beautiful picture of the Green Peacock that was recently featured in the Game Bird Gazette magazine Because of its gorgeous appearance, the peacock has long been famous outside of its native countries of Southern Asia and Malaysia, and was kept for centuries by people first in China and then in Europe and America. The Phoenicians brought the peacock to Egypt more than three thousand years ago. Historical records indicate that Solomon kept several peacock species, among other pheasants, with the India Blue being his favorite peacock. Peafowl were extensively raised by the Romans for the table as well as for ornamental purposes, and medieval Europe carried on this practice as well. It is only after the XVI Century, when turkeys were imported from Mexico, that the peacock was discarded as a table bird for the more fleshy American birds. Today, thousands of people all over the world keep and breed peafowl as a hobby or business around their homes or on game bird farms. Many people keep their birds in their backyards while others provide them with more spacious surroundings. Many peafowl live at freedom and breed on farms or in the countryside.

Peafowl were also considered a delicacy in these cultures for centuries. Fortunately, few of peacock speciesare used for food today, except in some of the more remote and less civilized places where they are found in nature. See the printed magazine for more information on man's long held fascination and cultural aspects of the peacock.

There are but two naturally occuring peacock species, the Indian peafowl Pavo cristatus from India, often called Blue peafowl (shown on the cover of the Game Bird Breeders Gazette magazine and child with feathers, upper left), and the Green peafowl Pavo muticus which lives farther east in Burma, Thailand, Indo China, Malaya and Java. It is curiously absent from Sumatra and Borneo. The latter peafowl has three subspecies: Spicifer in Western Burma, a duller, bluer race; Imperator in Eastern Burma, Thailand and Indo China, much brighter wid greener: and muticus in Java, which is still more brilliant. The last two are usually kept in America at present, and probably mixed, but for practical p

There are many mutations and breeds of peacocks that have been developed and are commonly available from peacock breeders. The India Blue Peacock is commonly kept and bred in captivity by people across America and around the world. They are not expensive and thousands of them are bought and sold each year (see classified ad section of the Game Bird Gazette magazine). They are hearty and easy to keep, even in cold districts. The Green species is not bred as often as the India Blue and is therefore more expensive. You can see that the tail of the green peacock is exceptionally beautiful! The Green is more susceptible to cold and needs to receive adequate protection from the cold.

Peafowl can be quite sociable and often display their feathers right in front of you in the springtime. The male peacock in the spring displays his gorgeous tail feathers and also utters an awakening call which is loud yet quite delight to hear!

Peacock feathers are popularly used in unique crafts and decorations.

You can feed a peacock the same as any other pheasant. The diet provided by many people includes mixed grains, game bird crumbles (such as Mazuri available at many feed stores), and a variety of greens. The birds hardly ever become sick and we have a record of one peacock that lived to be 40 years old!

When raised on the game farm and are well settled, many people find that peafowl don't stray far from home. They can, of course, also be kept in covered pens if you want to make sure they don't wander away, and they live and breed well in pens. There is some terrific information from one of the nation's leading peacock producers in the next issue of the GAZETTE on how house and general care for the peacock.

Peahens are excellent mothers, but peachicks can be reared just as well in a brooder. They are among the easiest birds to raise. One thing to be careful about is to give them good shelters in the autumn and winter following their birth, as they are not fully grown before eight or ten months. The Indian Blue Peacock has produced several mutations in captivity. These include the Black-shouldered, in which the male has the wings blue, green and black, the female being very pale; the White; and the Pied, in which the normal plumage of the Indian Blue is irregularly marked with white. The so-called 'Spalding' variey is a hybrid between the Indian and the Green species (one of the green peacock races shown in picture at left). It is very beautiful bird, intermediate between the two parents in colors, in hardiness and in temperament.