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Indian Peafowl

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

                 iIndian Peafowl
   An Indian Peacock displaying.
   An Indian Peacock displaying.

                             Conservation status

   Least Concern (LC)
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Animalia
   Phylum:  Chordata
   Class:   Aves
   Order:   Galliformes
   Family:  Phasianidae
   Genus:   Pavo
   Species: P. cristatus

                                Binomial name

   Pavo cristatus
   Linnaeus, 1758

   The Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus also known as the Common Peafowl and
   the India Blue Peafowl is one of the species of bird in the genus Pavo
   of the Phasianidae family known as peafowl. The Indian Peafowl is a
   resident breeder in eastern Pakistan, 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.
     * Peacock mating call
          + The peacock's rituals include the display of its startling
            plumage and a loud call.

   Peacock tail feathers.
   Enlarge
   Peacock tail feathers.

   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 spaldings(this is especially named
   for the hybrid of the "black-shoulder" variation of the indian peafowl
   and the java green subspecies of the green peacock).

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

   .

   Indian Peafowl went feral in Mexico in the 19th century. The range of
   these peafowl now reaches across most of Mexico, and much of the USA
   from California to Florida.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Peafowl"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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