Beautiful peahen showed up at my farm this past weekend - what can you tell me about her?

[Wynette]

I haven't been able to get close enough to see if he's got a leg band or not, but this boy is just gorgeous to my uneducated eye - he looks almost like a VERY light self-blue, and has a large patch of blue at the base of his neck near the back. He could just be a dirty white, though he definitely does not appear white to me. Oh, you know - I am "assuming" it's a male due to the crown on the head...not sure if females get those, too? Sheesh. I know absolutely nothing about peafowl.

Anyway, I have a small pen with a few ducks in it - Saturday morning, I noticed this pea....cock/hen(?) standing behind the pen. I took a huge second look, as we just don't have peafowl roaming around our area. In fact, the only place I know of near me that has them is about 10 miles away, and I've not seen anything but the "typical" greenish/bluish colored ones there. I slowly went to the barn & filled a dish with some Kent All-Flock pellets and another with water, and slowly took them to near where the bird was and put them on the ground; as soon as I walked away, it RAN to them, ate a bunch, drank some, then sauntered off. Easily hopped my 5' horse fence, and was gone in my field. But, it was back again that evening. Then, Sunday, I noticed him strolling down our dirt road, about a mile from the house, so I figured it was gone for good. Then, this morning, it was back!

So, what can you tell me about him/her? Not a great picture, taken with my cell phone (and not a very pretty part of my property!!):

 

[Mmmatt13]

Looks like some type of blackshoulder or possibly pied hen. The hens get the crowns too. Hopefully the experts chime in here, I'm no expert, just guessing from what I know, which isn't a lot. Very very pretty, though.

 

[zazouse]

I bet she is nesting nearby, she might have escaped and got lost or she could have gone on a walkabout and got lost. or she couild have chased something like my crazy birds do and now can't find her way back.

She looks very health from what i could see, i bet someone is missing her.
I can't tell from the photo what she is but looks like some type of silver.

If she keeps comming back ,eating and leaving again , you can bet she is nesting

 

[AugeredIn]

Well it is definitely a hen and she does look healthy. Really hard to tell what color she is from the picture. If she is not white and just dirty from dirt baths, I guess she would have to be silver pied based. Not enough black for IB black shoulder.

 

[Kedreeva]

If it's got blue on the neck, as opposed to green, it's *possible* this is a yearling silver pied... But any older than that and for sure it's a female and I'd say a blackshoulder female. If the closest peafowl you've seen were "the normal blue" and you are new to peafowl, you might miss the difference between a solid wing and barred wing male; it's also possible those blues were carrying blackshoulder genes and this is new offspring. If it's possible for you to get some more pics, we'd love to see and make better guesses!

If you want to read more about peafowl basics, here's a link to the sticky topics index for the peafowl forums:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/389059/peafowl-sticky-topics-index

Lots of info there gathered from all over the peafowl forums here and around the net.

 

[Wynette]

Thanks so much, everyone! Yup - I've been looking through the Peafowl 101 thread. Very interesting!

I was thinking about putting a notice out on Craigslist that she's been hanging around my farm, but I definitely want her to go back to her rightful home...is it possible that if I do this, someone would claim her that does not own her? Would it be best to not post a pic along with the ad, and ask responders to reply with a description?

I was able to get more pictures - and missed an absolutley awesome opportunity for one of the best pictures I've ever taken (ahem....not to say that I'm any good at taking pics, I'm acutally known for NOT being good at it). She flew up to the side of the duck enclosure she's been hanging around (6' high, covered with chicken wire) at dusk - the sun was almost set behind her, and she was in GORGEOUS profile. I had my camera, so took it out slowly and clicked....and before the digital camera could get the image, she hopped back down.

But, I was able to get sever more pics with my digital camera, which should show her in more clarity. She appears to be what I call lavender in chickens, maybe that is silver in peas? She has darker feathering going down her back, but I'm not sure if I got any pics of that. I'll post in a few minutes when I get them off my camera.

 

[TheReadyBoys]

I would say your lucky to get something that beautiful show up on your property!

 

[dinahmoe]

Beautiful!
i wish i could get something that nice to show up at my farm.
lucky you

 

[zazouse]

I would post "found a bird" if you lost one please send a description and phone number , if it matches the one i found i will call you back.
This way you can avoid all the once trying to claim it when it does not belong to them.

 

[Wynette]

Thanks, zazouse - that was sort of what I was thinking, I think it's a good idea. I want this hen to go back to her rightful owner if possible. Someone must be missing her! Okay, I have gotten the pix off of my camera that I just took yesterday - it was near dusk, so some of them are a bit dark, and the ones I used the zoom on are a bit blurry (cheap camera!):

ReadyBoys & dinahmoe - I most definitely feel blessed to see hear each time she is near my barn!