Peafowl National Bird of India in 1963
The peacock is the male bird of the peafowl, well the females are called peahens and their very young are called peachicks. There are close related species of peafowl found in the wild and those are the Indian peafowl and the Green Peafowl (also knowing as the Java peafowl).
One of the most well knowing thing about these birds are their long train of feathers of the peafowl (the males have the very long colourful feather; well the females are not as colourful and are not as long). The peacock will show off their colourful feathers to female peahen and the peahen will do the same to the peacock. Both sexes do have a crest of short erected feathers along the crown of their heads.
Peafowl’s are powerful large birds, but are weak flyers and will spend most of their time on the ground eating different foods such as plants and small animals. They will fly for short time to get away from danger and will sleep on top of trees at night.
Peahen will lay around 3 to 5 eggs within small holes in the ground in areas that have bushes or closed off. Peahens will sit on their egg for about 28 days and after hatching they will follow their mother around for protection. Peafowl’s are the second largest members of the pleasant and turkey family.
Peafowl’s will live for about an estimated 15 years within the wild and 23 years within captivity. The Indian peafowl are found widely in numbers thought South Asia and are protected both culturally and by law because peafowl has been designated the National bird of India in 1963 and have an estimated population of more then 100,000 but illegal poaching for their meat have continued and does see a decline within numbers in parts of India. Well the Green Java Peafowl is threatened and has seen a population of only about 5,000 to 10,000 within 1995 by the IUCN and is considered threatened. Within 2005 there was a successful reintroduction that was made in Malaysia by World Pheasant Association (WPA).
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