What are some cute or interesting habits some of your peafowl have?

[SunBaked]

I am fascinated with my birds personalities and behaviors. They each have their own little quirks and habits, makes me wonder what kinds of things other pea owners may have noticed. I'll add a few of my birds habits.

Atticus, my almost 3 year old hand-raised male doesn't mind me petting him on his head but he always gives my finger a good peck first before he tilts his head and lets me "groom" him. I thought it was just him being wierd but Schmindrick my 2013 keeper has started doing the exact same thing. I remember somebody on this forum had mentioned one of theirs doing it also.

When I am on my way out to feed my flock they start calling out, making a different honk than their alarm call, and my 3 hand raised ones start running back and forth all manic across the front of their aviary's.

Schmindrick loves to eat out of my hand except usually he is full so he just sits and picks the pellets one by one out of my hand and drops them to the ground.

Atticus knows he's too big for my shoulder now. Anytime I take out chicks and put them into the grow out pen the sound of their baby peeping makes him think he's a chick again. He starts trying to fly to my shoulder until I convince him again that he is grown up.

 

[zazouse]

I have 30 imprented peas that like to run the gauntlet around my tractor when I am trying to work



And if I stop they have been known to fly up on the roll bar and take a ride.


I end up having to get off the tractor and wait to they find something else to do but then they end up piling on the tractor and I can't get nothing done


I love to sit and feed them peanuts but they got other ideas , like stealing things out of my pocket like this towel.



then they will toss the towel around and freak all the other peas out.




When my DH goes over to our daughters some of the peas will fly up on the gate and call for him, they are not allowed over there and they don't want dear ol dad over there either.

There are so many things they do I could write about but it would be a book before I finished so I will stop here.

I love the stories of your peas, it is fun to share Thank you

 

[SunBaked]

Haha, such fun to hear about other pea's antics. Your pictures are always so beautiful. I'm trying to think of some other funny things my pea's do but of course I'm drawing a blank.

 

[MinxFox]

I love how they all have their own personality too, and sometimes their personality changes.

My Peep does the same thing with the pecking. I normally let him peck me then I know it is okay to pet him. A lot of times he walks up to me and pecks my fingers to let me know he wants to be pet, but sometimes he does it when I am busy filling food dishes. They must all use pecking to tell us "pet me" kind of like what dogs do by putting their muzzle in your hand or bumping your hand with their nose. I find peacocks to be extra curious, and yesterday Aaron was making the new roost inside the peafowl pen and Peep was getting so close to the hammer I had to keep making him move out of the way. He kept trying to peck the hammer. Peep also likes to display for me and chase after me. He was doing that today, but I did notice he displayed for actual peahens, thank goodness! When I let the peafowl out of the pen for an hour or so Peep always flies on top of an area of the pen covered in tarps. A lot of times he stays up there and you have to really work hard to get him down. When I wear a necklace sometimes Peep likes to grab it and shake it. There is one necklace I sometimes wear with a big brown bead on it, and he loves to play with that necklace. Alto is weird because of the way he eats. Today I was feeding all the peafowl bread and I swear he was trying to take my hand off! He would not only grab the bread out of my hand, but try and get my fingers in his mouth as well. I have no idea why he likes to really get a good bite on me when he takes food from my hand. Oooh oops maybe it was because I accidently stepped on his train today...I didn't mean to!!

Alto doesn't like a challenge to his authority and will even peck at peahens if he doesn't want to share food, but he has a weakness for India Blue peahens. He loves that kind of peahen, but unfortunately all of the India blue or India blue split peahens that he had an eye for were killed by raccoons, thus is his tragic experience with girlfriends. Right now he has the hots for my pied peahen Damsel probably because she is the only peahen with a significant amount of brown and green on her.

Smarty is a little shy because he is the lowest ranking bird. He will take food from my hand but I think he is weary about doing so because he is used to another peafowl coming up and taking his food the poor young boy. He is very smart though. As a half grown peachick I would leave the pen door cracked open for him and he would go outside, eat some grass, and come right back inside the pen all on his own. I never had to herd him back in that is why I always thought he was so smart to find his way back in on his own.

Frosty is so funny! He likes to whine sometimes. He makes these little calls (not loud calls) that I don't really hear the others make. I never can exactly figure out why he makes them. Sometimes I wonder if he is whining that I haven't fed them yet. Frosty falls asleep in the sunlight very easily. He loves the sun and he often closes one eye as if he is content or lazy. He hardly ever displays, but last year when Alto was chasing Peep around to assert his dominance, Frosty decided to join in on the chase and when Alto made a victory cry Frosty joined in with a very loud one. Maybe one of the funniest things about Frosty is that sometimes if you accidently get some tomato or lettuce on his back, he will turn around to see what landed on him, then he runs around freaking out! He is an all white bird, so I don't know if he is excited to see color on him or if he doesn't like it. Frosty might not display much, but I see him being really nice to all of the peahens. I think he is very good with the peahens because he preens them and gets close to them. He might not be colorful, but he has a way with the girls. Sometimes Frosty eats food so fast that he starts making these noises as if he is trying hard to quickly gulp his food down so he can have more.

Ice used to be very bossy but now she is not that bad. Ice is the main peahen that bosses around younger peacocks, but once the peacocks get older the first thing they want to do is chase Ice all around the pen. When Ice was a free-range bird, she hid in the bushes all the time. I think that might be why the peacock we free-ranged with her ran off without her. I don't think he liked her. Recently Ice has been displaying a lot.

Damsel is a very pretty peahen. Damsel is very nice and is still very nice to her son who is going to be two this year. She still shares food with him. She really likes Alto too and will perch next to him and preen him. Damsel also found an old pair of keys in the pen once. She picked them up and jangled them and then dropped them.

Snow White is really cute! She is a small white peahen who was accepted by my "white gang". My other two whites Frosty and Shyanne (brother and sister) had a third sister named Goldilocks who I sold. Since I sold Goldilocks Snow White has been the white gang's replacement member and she sticks very close to Shyanne and is even exhibiting some of the boldness that she previously did not have, but boldness is a huge characteristic with my other whites so therefore she is learning it from them. She is getting good at getting close to me and begging.

Shyanne is really interesting. Her sister Goldilocks was very outgoing and quick to take food from my hand, but Shyanne was always shy. Since Goldilocks has left Shyanne has changed. Shyanne has really been nice to Snow White. Shyanne runs up to me for treats, will jump for treats, and is very quick and assertive for treats.

All of the whites are fast when it comes to taking treats. Oh and when the whites were little peachicks they were so wild acting! They were the dirtiest birds ever and they were so flighty! When they were younger I never thought they would be tame!