Peacocks

Peafowl are large members of the pheasant family, weighing 8 to 10 pounds. They are native to India and southeast Asia, but are hardy and can tolerate cold weather. There are two main types, India Blue and Java Green, which can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Man has developed dozens of color variations, with more appearing all the time from chance genetic mutations.

In behavior peafowl are similar to wild turkeys: they can fly, but prefer to walk. At night they roost in trees. They spend their days in grass, watching for predators while they search for bugs, seeds, plants, flowers, and fruit to eat. They make dozens of sounds, from soft growls and squeaks to piercing yells. Adult males shed their long tail feathers in the fall, and grow new ones, up to 5 feet long, in time for the May to October mating season.

India Blue adult male

India Blue

This is the most common type of peafowl in the United States. The adult males have dazzling iridescent feathers: deep blue on the head and neck, and coppery green back and tail coverts. They also sport a variety of wing feather colors and patterns: both black-and-white and black-and-brown mottling on the shoulders, shiny blue-black at mid-wing, and rich cinnamon-colored flight feathers on the tips of their wings. Belly feathers are shiny blue-black, and the tail feathers are dull black (these are used to hold up the colorful, long tail coverts). But when the male folds his tail and rests under a bush, he becomes almost invisible!

India Blue hens nest on the ground, so their feathers must serve as camouflage during that time. Their iridescent green head and neck, dull gray back, white belly, brown flight feathers, and black tail blend remarkably well with a landscape of greenery, soil, rocks, and tree stumps.

2 Black Shoulder chicks

Black Shoulder adult female

Black Shoulder

India Blue peafowl have a pattern variation called Black Shoulder, so named for the solid blue-black coloring on the wings of the mature males. Otherwise, the males' coloring is the same as the normal India Blue peacock, except for this lack of white mottling on the wings.

Surprisingly, the Black Shoulder female is mostly off-white, with only a bit of green on the neck, a sprinkling of black on the back, cinnamon-colored flight feathers, and black tail feathers. Some people mistake them for White, but they aren't really.

Even more surprising, all Black Shoulder chicks are pure white when they hatch! But within a week or two, the wing feathers begin to darken. Males continue to darken for two years or more, while the female stays the same color from about 3 months onward. This metamorphosis from white to mostly black results in some unusually colored and patterned feathers as the cock matures.

A Black Shoulder hen is not well-camouflaged when on a ground nest, and must therefore choose thicker brush to hide in or risk losing her eggs, and possibly, her life! One or two Black Shoulder parents can produce India Blue, Black Shoulder, or even pure White offspring.

Black Shoulder yearling male

Black Shoulder adult male

White Peacock

White

Pure White birds make up only one percent of the peafowl population. Both parents must be White to guarantee all White offspring. One White parent bred to any other color will produce chicks that are "split to white," meaning they appear colored, while carrying a recessive White gene.

India Blue peafowl with some white flight feathers can occasionally produce pure White babies when bred together or to a Black Shoulder. White peafowl are not albinos: they do not have pink eyes, but rather blue, hazel, or light brown. Their beak and legs are light pink.

Not all chicks that hatch "white" (actually they look very light yellow) will stay that color. If a white chick starts to darken in 2 or 3 weeks, it will become a Black Shoulder. Sexing White chicks takes longer (unless you DNA test): you have to wait until the male's tail coverts begin to lengthen at 12 to 18 months, or until the spurs grow long and sharp (male), or stay small and dull (female), which can take up to 2 years!

White animals are rare, because they stand out in almost any landscape. A White peafowl could only be considered "camouflaged" in the snow! White feathers are also weaker in structure than colored ones, and wear out faster. When a mature White male fans his tail, it looks more airy than the India Blue's colorful tail.

White peafowl are easily targeted by predators, and are bullied by normal-colored birds, perhaps because they tend to be slightly smaller. They are probably better off being confined to an aviary, especially during the May to October breeding season.

White Peacock

White Peahen

Hen on nest

Hatched eggs

Babies

Peahens nest on the ground, after digging a shallow, unlined bowl, hidden a few feet inside the brush line, often near a stump. One beige egg, 2 to 3 times larger than a chicken's, is laid every other day. The hen does not sit on the nest until all her eggs are laid, normally 4 to 6 per clutch. Incubation takes 28 days, during which time the hen enters a trance-like state. She flushes noisily once a day, and walks around as if in a hurry to eat, drink, and take a dust bath. Then she will try to slip back to her nest unobserved.

Peachicks are born fuzzy, with half-grown wing feathers, a short neck, and no tail. Their topknot starts to grow in about 2 weeks. Chicks are vulnerable to wet, cold, and predators until they are fully feathered at 3 months old, although they can jump and fly amazingly well in a few days.

It's often impossible to tell the sex of a peachick until they are several months old and begin growing their sexually dimorphic adult plumage (i.e., males differently colored and with longer tails than females). But sometimes there are behavioral clues, such as tail spreading, boldness, or aggression (male), or shyness and sticking close to mother (female). However, we have been fooled by early behavior more than once!

Newly hatched chicks

6-week-old chick

Growth and Development

Newly-hatched India Blue chicks are fuzzy yellow with light and dark brown mottling and brown wings. After a few weeks the fuzz is replaced with mottled brown and black feathers.

Both sexes look like females for about 3 months, after which a male's neck will gradually turn blue. Then his belly feathers will start coming in black instead of white, looking "pied" for quite a while.

At 6 months, the young peafowl are almost as big as their mother, and the males are bigger than the females, with longer legs. Males' back and tail coverts slowly turn from grey to green, getting longer all the time. The beaks and legs darken from pinkish grey to dark grey as they mature, and youngster's grey eyes turn dark brown at maturity.

By 9 months, young peafowl are ready to become independent. The mother hen may drive them away with pecking and clawing, so she can concentrate on mating and egg-laying in early summer. At 2 years old, females are mature and ready to reproduce, but males will have only 18" to 24" green and white mottled tail coverts, and perhaps a few "eye" feathers. Not until age 3 are males sexually mature, sporting the classic 5-foot-long tail, grown over the previous winter.

6-month-old hen

1 & 2 year-old males

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