Indian Peafowl

The Indian Peafowl is a very large gamebird whose male, the peacock, has an iridescent blue neck and an elongated train formed by upper-tail coverts. Each train feather ends in a colourful eye-like spot displayed in a raised fan during courtship. Females lack the train and are mainly brown with a greenish neck, while both sexes carry a small fan-shaped crest (Animal Diversity Web; Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its native South Asian range, Indian Peafowl use open deciduous forest, scrub and cultivated country, roosting in trees but feeding mainly on the ground. Their broad omnivorous diet includes seeds, shoots, flower buds, fruit, insects and small reptiles. Females make a concealed ground nest and lay three to eight eggs. Records in Japan represent birds outside the natural range, including established or escaped populations (Animal Diversity Web; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).