Birds

A bird by any other name is still a bird.  Maybe this is true or maybe it's not.  We may not have seen one in person, but we all use the same term.  They have an amazing and colorful spread of feathers, and we call them peacocks.  We use the term to describe that type of bird, when it really doesn't apply to all.  The correct name for these types of birds is peafowl.  The male is called a peacock and the female is a peahen.  The babies are called peachicks. 

The peacock has long feathers, which they spread out to attract females.  We all think of those  feathers as their tail, but the feathers are actually known as the train.  The peacock does have a tail, which helps support their feathers.  There are designs on the peacock feathers that look like eyes.  The peahen colors are not as bright as the peacock and her tail isn't as long.  The peahen will display her  feathers as a way of protecting her babies. 

The peahen commonly lays between 6 to 12 eggs.  It usually takes about 28 days for the eggs to hatch. If the peahen is in captivity, her eggs can be hatched naturally, in an incubator, or by placing the eggs under other birds, like a chicken or duck.  When peachicks are born they already have feathers and can usually fly within two weeks.  For peachicks to survive, they need warm weather.  The peacock is mature by the time he's 3 years old, ironically, all peafowl can begin to mate when they are 2 years old.  There needs to be at least one mature peafowl to produce fertile eggs.  Peafowls breed during the spring and  early summer.  Normally they are quiet, but they become noisy during the mating season.  When August rolls around, the peacock sheds his tail feathers and starts to grow new ones.

Peafowls spend a lot of their time on the ground looking for food and eat from a very diverse menu, anything from insects, seeds, and berries to snakes and worms.   The peafowl can be found in most areas of the world, though they tend to like flat tropical areas and dense forest like  areas near water and they will only fly for short distances, usually to get away from danger and to roost in treetops at night.

The peafowl looks like and is an exotic bird.  Something that you would normally only expect to see at a animal preserve or if you took a trip to another country.  So, why do peafowls seem so common, well,  human nature seems to be, if you see something you like, you want to own it.  Like with so many other animals, people want a peafowl in their yard.  People constantly remove animals from their natural  surroundings because they want to domesticate them.  Do people think about the affect on the peafowl population every time they remove one from its home.  Do they consider what the change in environment will do to the health of the peafowl.   Eventually people should realize that having an exotic animal in your yard maybe great for you, but it maybe hurting the animal.