The Peacock - Information for learners
If you have never seen a peacock open up its tail feathers, it must really be something you would like to see. It is the male that does this during mating season to attract the attention of the female.
He is showing off his best side. Lets learn more about these birds that some people even keep as pets.
"Peacock" is commonly used as the name for a peafowl of the pheasant family. But in fact "peacock" is the name for the colorfully plumaged male peafowl only. The females are called peahens, they are smaller and grey or brown in color. The babies are called peachicks.
Peacocks are best know for the beautiful tail feathers which they can open up and can be as long as 2 meters high. On the feathers there are patterns that looks like big eyes.
The male will use this to attract the female, but it can also be used to make the peacock make bigger if it feels threatened by predators.
There are three types of peacocks, the Indian, the Green and the Congo.
The Indian is the best known one and this is the peafowl where the male has the beautiful feathers not only on its tail, but also on it neck and body. The feathers on the head and neck are arranged like scales. The female do not have colours like this and is mostly grey or even brown. The Indian peacock is found in Pakistan and India and is also the national bird of India.
The countries mentioned is where these birds originally came from, but they are now found mostly all over the world.
The Congo peacock is found naturally in central Africa and it is different from the others because it does not have the plumage on the tail.
The Green peacock is found in Central Asia and its feathers are green and copper.
Some peacocks are white, even though this is not seen a lot. They are not albinos, they just have a mutation that causes them to have no colour pigments in their feathers.
A peacock can fly and their wingspan can be up to 5 meters, so this make them the biggest flying birds on earth.
A peacock can live up to 20 years, but as they get older, their feathers will start looking worse and the colours can even fade. The plumage of the male will look the best between 5 and 6 years of age.
They are omnivores which mean they will eat plants and flours, seeds and nuts and also meat like lizards and insects. The males have a spur on each foot which they will use if they need to fight other males.
Peacocks have a number of natural predators in the wild that include wild dogs and cats, medium sized mammals such as raccoons and even tigers have been known to hunt peacocks
