Indian Peafowl

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Indian Peafowl | status = Conservation status: Lower risk (lc) | image = peacock.displaying.better.800pix.jpg | image_width = 200px | image_caption = An Indian Peacock displaying. | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Aves | ordo = Galliformes | familia = Phasianidae | genus = Pavo | species = P. cristatus | binomial = Pavo cristatus | binomial_authority = Linnaeus, 1758 }} Image:Peahenandchicks.jpg The Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus is a species of bird in the genus Pavo of the Phasianidae family. The Indian Peafowl is a resident breeder in India and Sri Lanka.

The species is found in dry semi-desert grasslands, scrub and deciduous forests. It forages and nests on the ground but roosts on top of trees. It eats mainly seeds, but also some insects, fruits and reptiles.

The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen. The Indian Peacock has beautiful iridescent blue-green plumage. The upper tail coverts are enormously elongated and ornate with an eye at the end of each feather. The female plumage is a mixture of dull green, grey and iridescent blue, with the greenish-grey predominating. In the breeding season, females can be told apart from the lack of the long tail feathers also known as the train. Peahens can be distinguished from males in the non-breeding season by the green colour of the neck as opposed to the blue on the males.

Peafowl are most notable for the male's extravagant tail also known as a train, a result of sexual selection, which it displays as part of courtship. This train is in reality not the tail but the enormously elongated upper tail coverts. The tail itself is brown and short as in the peahen.

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They lay a clutch of 4-8 eggs which take 28 days to hatch. The eggs are light brown and are laid every other day usually in the afternoon. The male does not assist with the rearing, and can take up to six hens.

This species can hybridise with the closely related Green Peafowl, Pavo muticus and create offspring called spauldings.

Peacocks are sometimes kept as domesticated animals for decoration. Many varieties exist, such as black-shouldered, oaten, white, purple, opal, pied, white, and midnight. The peacock is the national bird of India and Sri Lanka.

Image:Lightmatter peacock tailfeathers closeup.jpg

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