Are Male Peafowl usually aggressive to people?

[BirdCrazy24]

They are 3 years old and I have not yet seen them go after each other as in the photos you shared. Ugh, so I can look forward to at least 3 more months of total hormonal stuff . I am guessing this is their first year of being sexually mature. They still don't have a true tail like yours. Thanks again for helping me. Its comforting to have someone with peafowl experience.

 

[zazouse]

They are 3 years old and I have not yet seen them go after each other as in the photos you shared. Ugh, so I can look forward to at least 3 more months of total hormonal stuff . I am guessing this is their first year of being sexually mature. They still don't have a true tail like yours. Thanks again for helping me. Its comforting to have someone with peafowl experience.

Yep you got a while to go before the season is over..
Glade to help we all help each other here.
Can you post some up to date photos of your boys mabe thay have some green blood in them.

 

[DylansMom]

I am so glad to read your posts. I am comparing notes and finding a similarity. The peacocks I have I believe are Indian. They were hand raised by me in the house. They would follow me, sit on my lap, pull on my shoe laces when I was putting on my boots. Now they have turned 3 years old and turned on me with no fear. It breaks my heart to think I might have crossed the line by being too close to them that maybe they see me as one of them and feel I am competition. . I hate the thought that I am the cause for them being aggressive and now have to be kept penned up. I don't see any other way. Way too dangerous to allow them to roam free. I don't want to pawn them off on someone so I guess their fate is sealed to be caged or eliminated. So sad. I feel I have failed them.

Is this a picture of Nugget and Archie when they were younger? If so you have a pair not 2 males as the bird on the left is a hen.

They don't fan for me. I let them out of their pen which is an 8X10 shed with a 10'X10' fenced area. It has a sliding glass front door and when they saw me coming with food and water they came to the door and I had some bread for them. When I realized they were not interested in the bread but me. As they circled me I tossed the rest of the bread and began to walk away and they followed me. When I faced them one started to squat as if to attack and the other got behind me. I would face the one but then the one behind launched at me. When I turned to face that one the other got behind me and this time almost got my face. Now I am frightened of them. I'm trying to figure this all out and went in the pen and satdown and not untill I stood up did he launch at me, no fanning, just launching, feet and wings at lightning speed. I hate this....

If you have a hen the bird that squatted was likely her, and the other, her mate was probably seeing you as a rival for her affections. Usually hens do not attack so this is quite unusual at least as far as I've heard.

 

[BirdCrazy24]

No, that was last years picture. That is a hen, Edith, but she was killed in a bear attack. At that time I had a hen and two males. now I only have Archie and Nugget.

 

[MinxFox]

It is always strange when people do end up with an aggressive peacock because there are those that handle peacocks a lot and don't end up with aggressive ones. I guess some just have the personality to become aggressive or something. The latest UPA magazine had a photo of a lady in a recliner with a mature peacock laying all sprawled out in her lap looking very comfortable. Some peacocks get very tame and have no aggressive issues but others just turn.

My tame peacock Peep thinks people are potential mates and will do the mating call and then rush at you trying to mate with your foot and he is four years old now and has not shown any aggression except for a time when he accidently scratched me. I figured I startled him because he was in the middle of a fight with another peacock and I came around a corner and he jumped on me probably thinking I was the other bird. I still have the scar from that but it wasn't that bad.

With your peacocks jumping up near your face I would wear some clear protective glasses to avoid getting hit in the eyes. You should probably always carry a stick, broom, trash can lid, something to push them away from you. It sounds like they are making it hard for you to not turn your back on them, but if at all possible try not to turn your back on either male. That is often the advise with aggressive/territorial peacocks is that you don't want to turn your back on them because that is when they will get you. If they jump at you try chasing after them for a little bit. I chase after some of my peacocks when they get to picking on my tame peacock Peep. It doesn't ruin their trust with me as they are back to eating out of my hand right after I chase them, but it probably helps show them I am dominant since the dominant peacock always chases the other peacocks around.

 

[DylansMom]

I have a somewhat imprinted white male named Roger who has me a little worried right now. He will be 2 years old next month and he is trying to fight with the mature IB male in the pen next to his. He gets so frustrated that he cannot get at that male, that he will then turn around and take it out on the yearlings he is penned with, chasing them and pecking at them pulling out feathers. No aggression toward people yet, but this much testosterone as a coming 2 year-old worries me. The imprinted spalding I have is the same age and is showing no such behavior. I had to move Roger into a pen by himself as I felt bad for the others in with him.

 

[DylansMom]

I have a somewhat imprinted white male named Roger who has me a little worried right now. He will be 2 years old next month and he is trying to fight with the mature IB male in the pen next to his. He gets so frustrated that he cannot get at that male, that he will then turn around and take it out on the yearlings he is penned with, chasing them and pecking at them pulling out feathers. No aggression toward people yet, but this much testosterone as a coming 2 year-old worries me. The imprinted spalding I have is the same age and is showing no such behavior. I had to move Roger into a pen by himself as I felt bad for the others in with him.

I moved Roger yesterday and when I went down this morning it was so peaceful in the barn. Glad I moved him!

 

[MinxFox]

Sounds like the comming 2 year old I sold that would chase the older peacocks around. I had never witnessed a young peacock not submit to older peacocks but instead chase them. This bird was always smart and I didn't hand raise him his peahen mom raised him. I hope yours doesn't turn agressive to people Dylansmom. It was peaceful for a little while after I sold the young peacock and then all the males got to fighting.

 

[KsKingBee]

A honey customer of ours who sells our honey at their pumpkin patch and produce store had a pair of peas that they wanted to find a new home for. I think the health problems that the owners was catching up with them and they wanted to cut back the employees and the winter maintence. We took in their IBBS cock and IBWE hen last fall, went through the isolation and worming/cocci treatments and started to look for a new home for the cock but before we coud find one for him DW fell in love with him and we decided to keep him around. Now the cock is free ranging around the house with another mature male and two two year old cocks.

Well, Ron, yes we name birds with the name of the people that we get them from, is a little beggar. He will run up to get in the way of where you are walking to stand in the way and look for a treat. That is part of the problem, we walk around with raw peanuts in our pockets and now he expects to be hand fed peanuts instead of eating his feed.

The other day DW gave him a couple of peanuts, turned around to walk away and Ron jumps up and flogs her from the back. He didn't hurt her but DW was startled. The next day he was being a pest and I tried to reach down and touch him, he jumped up in my face. No damage to me but hey, that was unexpected. Later yesterday DW had another encounter when Ron. She had been giving him dog food as a treat, he ate one held between thumb and forefinger, he ate one then after that he kept biting her finger instead of the treat. When she tried to pick one up off the ground where he dropped it he flogged her with his wing. Well she promptly put her foot in his chest and that was that.

DW thinks we should stop giving him hand fed treats.

I think @MinxFox has a good idea with chasing back to show dominance, what do y'all think? I am a bit concerned that when/if the grandkids come up that there may be a problem.

 

[DylansMom]

A honey customer of ours who sells our honey at their pumpkin patch and produce store had a pair of peas that they wanted to find a new home for. I think the health problems that the owners was catching up with them and they wanted to cut back the employees and the winter maintence. We took in their IBBS cock and IBWE hen last fall, went through the isolation and worming/cocci treatments and started to look for a new home for the cock but before we coud find one for him DW fell in love with him and we decided to keep him around. Now the cock is free ranging around the house with another mature male and two two year old cocks.

Well, Ron, yes we name birds with the name of the people that we get them from, is a little beggar. He will run up to get in the way of where you are walking to stand in the way and look for a treat. That is part of the problem, we walk around with raw peanuts in our pockets and now he expects to be hand fed peanuts instead of eating his feed.

The other day DW gave him a couple of peanuts, turned around to walk away and Ron jumps up and flogs her from the back. He didn't hurt her but DW was startled. The next day he was being a pest and I tried to reach down and touch him, he jumped up in my face. No damage to me but hey, that was unexpected. Later yesterday DW had another encounter when Ron. She had been giving him dog food as a treat, he ate one held between thumb and forefinger, he ate one then after that he kept biting her finger instead of the treat. When she tried to pick one up off the ground where he dropped it he flogged her with his wing. Well she promptly put her foot in his chest and that was that.

DW thinks we should stop giving him hand fed treats.

I think @MinxFox has a good idea with chasing back to show dominance, what do y'all think? I am a bit concerned that when/if the grandkids come up that there may be a problem.

Chasing back may work for us adults who are a lot bigger, but I would be worried that with kids around they might see this as a challenge from a rival of equal size and be even more likely to escalate. I would definitely stop the treats and if he keeps it up, the free ranging would end. Before selling him I would want to see where this all ended up, I wouldn't want to see someone else less knowledgeable end up with him, as someone could really get hurt. Roger has not shown any aggression toward me yet, when I moved him I just cornered him and picked him right up, he squawked at me but was completely compliant. He just reminds me of Poppie, and the BS you had, more interested in fighting other males than anything and prone to taking out his aggression on hens. Roger is not as imprinted as Chirpie the spalding, he has never been comfortable with being petted or touched the way Chirpie is, but because of all the handling when we were taping his legs for the TT, he got used to being picked up.