Let's learn more about peafowls
Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus Pavo and one species of the closely related genus Afropavo within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are referred to as peahens.
Those two peafowls are from India, or at least, the peacock you're probably thinking of does. This is the Indian peafowl, or blue peafowl, and they are the most popular type of peafowl - it's also the national bird of India! But there are two other types of peafowl - the Congo peafowl, which is a bit darker in colour and more like a turkey, and the green peafowl, which looks more like our Indian friend, but is found more in Southeast Asia and is a bit more...well, green. You can even get white peafowl, although this is due to a genetic mutation.
The functions of the elaborate iridescent coloration and large "train" of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Charles Darwin suggested that they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. More recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his handicap principle that these features acted as honest signals of the males' fitness, since less-fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.
Only the males are colorful
So if peacocks are just the males, what are peahens like? Well, they're a lot less flashy, and tend to come in darker colours like grey, black and brown. This is because they don't need to attract a mate, they get to choose! So the male peafowl are the show-offs in bright colours, and the peahen gets to pick which one she likes most! They do have a little bit of colour around their necks though, and both male and female peafowl have a little feathery crest on top of their heads.
THEY ARE PART OF THE SAME FAMILY AS CHICKENS.
Yes, peacocks are chickens much flashier, more impressive cousins! They are all part of the Phasianidae family, which also includes turkeys, pheasants, and generally any bird with the word 'fowl' in it's name. You might even notice that some breeds of chicken of chicken have similarly fancy and shiny feathers - it makes sense! This family of birds generally like to live on the ground, and only fly when absolutely necessary.
THEY CAN FLY!
They might look like they'd be pretty ungainly in the air, but peacocks CAN fly! They can't fly very far or very high, but they have been known to fly about a mile (Which is further than you can fly, admit it!). They usually only do this when they feel threatened by a predator, so most of the time they're much happier on the ground.
THEY'RE FEATHERS HAVE SEVERAL PURPOSES
They aren't just there to look pretty - although that is one of their main aims. There feathers have several different purposes, most of them to do with mating. When trying to attract a female, a peacock wants to look as impressive as possible, and his huge, feathery tail will help with that. It's also useful when confronting other peacocks who might be after your girlfriend to look as big and as threatening as possible. They also use them to warn off predators -the eye like shapes can make the peacock seem like a much bigger, scarier animal.
THEY'RE FEATHERS REGROW EVERY YEAR
If you're wondering how male peafowl maintain those amazing feather displays, it's because they shed and regrow their feathers every year, giving them fresh new ones, a bit like when your hair comes out when you brush it, or clipping your nails (but cooler). That's why you don't need to hurt a peacock to collect it's feathers - if you're lucky, you'll find them all over the ground! Be on the look out!
THEY ARE COVERED IN CRYSTALS!
Yup, these birds are truly the show-offs of the nature world, and there's a reason why they look so fabulous. So what's the secret that really makes the peacock’s feathers so brilliant? There feathers are covered in microscopic crystal like structures which help to make the iridescent colours off their feathers shine! Microscopic structures that reflect different wavelengths of light depending on how they’re spaced, resulting in bright fluorescent colors. Hummingbirds and shimmering butterflies demonstrate a similar visual effect on their own wings. No wonder they look so amazing, they're literally bejewelled!
THEIR CRESTS ACT LIKE SENSORS FOR MATES
A female peacock has special sensors in her crest that allow her to feel the vibrations of the mate who may be located far away. The feathers are “tuned to vibrate at the exact same frequencies at which a displaying peacock rattles his tail,” according to The Atlantic. Whenever a male peacock fans his tail, he shakes it at a rate of 26 times a second, creating a pressure wave that literally rattles the female’s head for attention.
THEY ARE OMNIVORES.
Like other members of their extended family, peafowl tend to eat whatever they come across, mostly grains, berries, plants and insects, though they will also chow down on lizards if they find them! In fact, if they're in the mood, they've been known to kill and eat snakes! Would you want to face a hungry peacock?
THEY CAN LIVE UP TO 50 YEARS!
When in captivity, peafowl have been known to live a very long time, up to 50 years, although in the wild it's much shorter, only about 25 years maximum. Still, that's a long time to be around! In the wild they are more susceptible to threats like predators, habitat descruction, food shortages and other dangers they don't face in captivity.
THEY'RE ARE ALL WHITE PEAFOWLS!
Thanks to selective breeding, it’s common for captive peafowl to have only white feathers. This is called leucism, and it’s due to a genetic mutation that causes loss of pigmentation in some of the birds’ pigment-producing cells. These peafowl are often mistaken for being albino, but instead of having red eyes, leucistic animals retain their normal eye color.
indian peafowls
Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan Empire, was born an orphan and raised by a family farming peacocks. According to the Buddhist tradition[which?], the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (mora in Pali) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as "Moriyas", literally, "belonging to the place of peacocks". According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara ("Moriya-city"), which was so called, because it was built with the "bricks coloured like peacocks' necks". After conquering the Nanda Empire and defeating the Seleucid Empire, the Chandragupta dynasty reigned uncontested during its time. Its royal emblem remained the peacock until Emperor Ashoka changed it to a lion, as seen in the Lion Capital of Ashoka, as well in his edicts. The peacock continued to represent elegance and royalty in India during medieval times; for instance, the Mughal seat of power was called the Peacock Throne.
The peacock is represented in both the Burmese and Sinhalese zodiacs. To the Sinhalese people, the peacock is the third animal of the zodiac of Sri Lanka.
Peacocks (often a symbol of pride and vanity) were believed[by whom?] to deliberately consume poisonous substances in order to become immune to them, as well as to make the colours of their resplendent plumage all the more vibrant – seeing as so many poisonous flora and fauna are so colourful due to aposematism, this idea appears to have merit. The Buddhist deity Mahamayuri is depicted seated on a peacock. Peacocks are seen supporting the throne of Amitabha, the ruby red sunset coloured archetypal Buddha of Infinite Light.
India adopted the peacock as its national bird in 1963 and it is one of the national symbols of India.
middle east
Tawûsî Melek (lit. 'Peacock Angel') one of the central figures of the Yazidi religion, is symbolized with a peacock. In Yazidi creation stories, before the creation of this world, God created seven Divine Beings, of whom Tawûsî Melek was appointed as the leader. God assigned all of the world's affairs to these seven Divine Beings, also often referred to as the Seven Angels or heft sirr ("the Seven Mysteries").
In Yazidism, the peacock is believed to represent the diversity of the world, and the colourfulness of the peacock's feathers is considered to represent of all the colours of nature. The feathers of the peacock also symbolize sun rays, from which come light, luminosity and brightness. The peacock opening the feathers of its tail in a circular shape symbolizes the sunrise.
Consequently, due to its holiness, Yazidis are not allowed to hunt and eat the peacock, ill-treat it or utter bad words about it. Images of the peacock are also found drawn around the sanctuary of Lalish and on other Yazidi shrines and holy sites, homes, as well as religious, social, cultural and academic centres.
MANDAEISM
In The Baptism of Hibil Ziwa, the Mandaean uthra and emanation Yushamin is described as a peacock.
aNCIENT GREECE
Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death,[citation needed] so it became a symbol of immortality. In Hellenistic imagery, the Greek goddess Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian bird". When Alexander saw the birds in India, he was so amazed at their beauty that he threatened the severest penalties for any man who slew one. Claudius Aelianus writes that there were peacocks in India, larger than anywhere else.
One myth states that Hera's servant, the hundred-eyed Argus Panoptes, was instructed to guard the woman-turned-cow, Io. Hera had transformed Io into a cow after learning of Zeus's interest in her. Zeus had the messenger of the gods, Hermes, kill Argus through eternal sleep and free Io. According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the peacock's tail.
Christianity
The symbolism was adopted by early Christianity, thus many early Christian paintings and mosaics show the peacock. The peacock is still used in the Easter season, especially in the east. The "eyes" in the peacock's tail feathers can symbolise the all-seeing Christian God, the Church, or angelic wisdom. The emblem of a pair of peacocks drinking from a vase is used as a symbol of the eucharist and the resurrection, as it represents the Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life. The peacock can also symbolise the cosmos if one interprets its tail with its many "eyes" as the vault of heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and stars. Due to the adoption by Augustine of the ancient idea that the peacock's flesh did not decay, the bird was again associated with immortality. In Christian iconography, two peacocks are often depicted either side of the Tree of Life.
The symbolic association of peacock feathers with the wings of angels led to the belief that the waving of such liturgical fans resulted in an automated emission of prayers. This affinity between peacocks' and angels' feathers was also expressed in other artistic media, including paintings of angels with peacock feather wings
JUDAISM
Among Ashkenazi Jews, the golden peacock is a symbol for joy and creativity, with quills from the bird's feathers being a metaphor for a writer's inspiration.
RENAISSANCE
The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno, and on which European painters focused.
CONTEMPORARY
In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an 11-feathered peacock logo for American broadcaster NBC. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in colour programming. NBC's first colour broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colourful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance on 22 May 1956. The current, six-feathered logo debuted on 12 May 1986.
Peafowl simbolizes wealth
For thousands of years, peacocks have symbolised wealth. It's not difficult to see why - their feathers look like beautiful, expensive jewels, and their displays are really impressive. Kings, Emperors and other royals have kept peacocks and used them in artwork to show off their own importance. They're also sometimes called 'the king of the birds' and are also associated with gods and goddess. In short, the peacock is fancier than you'll ever be.
