Today's Flock Mixing Pics

I have been meaning to spend a day where I open up the peachick's pen and watch them mix with the adults. I have done this several times but not for a long periods of time. Ice was chasing the white peachicks back into their pen and then cornering them in their narrow pen and jumping on them. I decided that their pen was just too narrow to leave open for Ice to get inside and make chaos so I herded the whites out of the pen and closed the door. That actually worked out pretty well. Ice stayed at the closed entrance of the peachick pen with her peachicks and they all eventually lay down there napping in the sun. I was sitting down with Peep right next to me pecking at my shoes and my headband or pecking at the ground near me. Alto was very interested in Peep and he would walk up to him and Peep would hide behind me and then Alto would walk around me to get to Peep and Peep would keep walking around to the other side of me so I had two peacocks circling me. Alto noticed Peep pecking at my feet so then Alto walked up and started pecking at my feet and then he would scratch at my foot with his foot. It is a good thing I wasn't wearing flip flops! The white peachicks were staying in a tight formation walking around cautiously. I shook my foot and Peep started displaying at my foot and Alto walked up and stared at my foot then pecked at Peep for displaying at my foot. The white peachicks flew up on the covered perches and Damsel and Alto flew up there too. Everyone seemed fine up there and after a while all of them were lying on the perches. I sat down in the sun watching a little bird in the pen and Peep lay down next to me. 

After a while I took Peep out of the pen so he could do a little free-ranging. He normally displays the whole time he is out of the pen and he never really wanders. I noticed that the white peachicks were down from the perch so I left Peep outside to go herd the whites into their pen. When I went to go get Peep to put him back into his pen he was right where I left him and he was still displaying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbourget 

You take such rare shots of peafowl I always love to see them! very cool. I will go out now and take some shots of my new aviary. Peafowl really can never have enough space to explore! i made it about 3 times as tall they just love all the new ceder branch perches i put in for them!

 

your birds very nice. and i especially like thier covered roost area. im having trouble getting mine to use the roost inside of thier shed now because they have been sleeping out in the aviary were it is taller now for them to perch up but nothing covering them from rains.

 

have a great day

Thanks! 

I would love to see your new aviary and I agree you can never give them enough. I always feel like their pen needs something more added to it and if I could have a giant tree in their pen I would lol! I know what you mean my peafowl use the covered roosts just during the daytime. They mainly use them when it rains during the day or if it is a windy day but at night they are always on the outside roosts. It took them a long time when we first built the covered roosting area for them to even use the perches.

Yes Xena's sister was named Fiona. The peahens do seem to be more reserved that is true. 

All ten of my peas eat out of my hand.

Here is a photo of Ice eating out of my hand.

Alto taking food from my hand.

Ice runs to me when she sees me open up a can of unsalted, un-shelled peanuts. That is one of Ice's favorite things to take from my hand. Today Xena was running up and eating peanuts from my hand. It is harder to get the peachicks to take peanuts from my hand but when I have some lettuce or some other kind of green in my hand it is really easy to hand feed them. Snow White is really good about taking food from me. She isn't very spooky. I try to hand feed them something almost every day. Mainly I feel like if you have just one bird that eats out of your hand the others will observe it taking food from your hand and eventually build up the courage to take food from your hand. To start getting birds to eat out of my hand I like to give them a treat that they can ONLY get from my hand. So I don't throw it out on the ground and they will realize that the only way to get a treat is from me. Now I can hold a big head of lettuce in one hand and in the other I can hold a small bite size piece of lettuce in the other and the peafowl always choose the small piece over tearing off their own piece. I really love hand feeding them because I know it means they trust me. Oh and another thing...When I start hand feeding birds I try not to look at their face. They feel more comfortable when you don't look at them then when they get more comfortable eating from your hand you can look at them more. Then you have peafowl like Peep who you can stare at all you want.