Indian Peafowl

Description:

A Peacock (male) high up in a tree, spotted in Bundala National Park, Sri Lanka. The male peacock is brightly coloured, with a predominantly blue fan-like crest of spatula-tipped wire-like feathers and is best known for the long train made up of elongated upper-tail covert feathers which bear colourful eyespots. These stiff feathers are raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship. Despite the length and size of these covert feathers, peacocks are still capable of flight. Peahens lack the train, and have a greenish lower neck and duller brown plumage. The Indian peafowl lives mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. They forage on the ground in small groups and usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying, though they fly into tall trees to roost.

Habitat:

Wetlands

Notes:

In the UK we're so used to seeing Peacocks strutting around the gardens of grand country houses so it does feel strange when you see Peacocks, with their glorious long feathers, high up in trees. It is a bird so I'm not sure why it's so surprising!