Essay on Peacock

 Essay on Peacock

Peacock, commonly known as peafowl is a beautiful, large, colorful bird. Male peafowl is called peacock and female peafowl is called peahen and the babies are called peachicks. Both are also called peacock. There are three types of peacocks: Blue peacock, Green peacock and Congo peacock. Among the three species, Indian peafowl or blue peafowl is the largest and heaviest.

Description of Peacock

Peacock is one of the most beautiful and fascinating bird with a huge colorful tail, magnificent feathers and crests.

The blue male peacocks or male peafowls are metallic blue in colour, the feathers of their head are blue in color which are short and curled. They have fan-shaped crest on the head that is made of feathers with bare black shaft and tipped with bluish-green webbing.

The both sides of their head have greenish blue feathers and have white patch around the eyes which are formed by bare white skin. Their back is covered with scaly bronze-green feathers with black and copper markings.

The color of their tail is dark brown and has only 20 feathers. Their tail is also called train which is an iridescent arrangement of colorful feathers. The train is made up of more than 200 feathers which have an eye spot at the end of every feather, but some feathers have crescent shaped black tip at the end. The length of train of male peacock is 1m to 1.3m. The tail feather of a peacock can be 6feet long which makes up 60% of the bird's body length.

The peahen has brown coloured head and has a crest on their head but the tips of the crest are chestnut edged with green. Their neck feathers are metallic green and breast is dark brown glossed with green but the under part is white in color.

Peacocks have long and strong greyish-brown legs with buff coloured thighs and have a spur on the both legs along the hind toes.

Green peafowl or green peacock is also known as Dragon bird. Male peacock has iridescent metallic green coloured plumage. Their back, neck and mantle are covered with scaly green feathers. Their emerald green tail feathers have a series of eye-spots. Peahen has dull grey-green feathers and has no train. They have yellow crescent beside the ears and light blue patch under the eyes.

They have metallic bluish-green feathers, bare red neck, black tail with 14 feathers and grey feet. Their crest is made with vertical white hair-like feathers.

White peacock is rare. The white peacock has blue eyes but their feathers have no pigmentation.

Habitat of peacock

India and Sri Lanka are the homes Blue peacock and Green peacock lives in Java and Myanmar. Congo peacock is found in Congo basin, central Africa.

In India, peacock lives in south-east Indus River, east Assam, Indian Peninsula, south Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir. Blue peacock also found in eastern Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Peacocks are found in bamboo, grasslands, savanna, scrub and farmland edge.

Behavior of Peacock

Peacocks or peafowls are omnivores. Their favorite foods are small snakes, small creatures like frogs, lizards, insects, ants, termites, locust, leaves, fruits, vegetables, flower petals, seeds, grains etc. In spring, the male peacocks display their courtship by spreading their iridescent train in a fan shape and shake the feathers to produce a rattling noise for attracting peahen’s attention.

The peahen scrapes a hole in the ground to build her nest, which is hidden in the wood or leaves and bushes and lays one or two clutches of eggs. Each clutch contains 4 to 8 eggs and the color of the eggs is ivory or tan. After 28 to 30 days, the chicks come out of the eggs. The chicks are called peachicks. They are yellow or brown in color and have feathers on their bodies.

Peafowl or peacock can live 10 to 25 years but in captivity, they can live 40 to 50 years.

Threats to Peacock

Peacocks are threatened by extinction, smuggling, hunting and poaching. The poachers kill the peacock for their beautiful feathers and meat. Due to deforestation, peacocks do not get sufficient food, breeding habitat, shelter and pushes them towards extinction. Green peacock and Congo peacock are also considered to be endangered.

Conclusion

The peacock, a symbol of beauty, wealth, immortality and pride, has always had a special place in the kingdom of the beast. Because of its beauty and grace, the peacock was declared as the National Symbol of India in 1963. Congo peacock is the national bird of the Democratic Republic of Congo.