Is that peafowl at the zoo male or female ? [Questioning colour]

[little blue]

I would also say it is a white peahen with stain feathers from the soil

 

[zazouse]

I don't think it is stained at all, the pigment of the skin around the eyes is different from my whites and why wouldn't the line of feathers on the face from the beak to the eye in the last photo be so white and not stained?
Even the beak is different in color compared to my whites
I have red sand here that i had hauled in and while it can stain my dogs when they are wet i have never seen it stain my white birds that dust in it they look orang till they shake it all off, but maybe thay got something different in their dirt over there.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

She don't look "stained" to me either,,too uniform of the exact same color all throughout the body,,if it was from soil you would think there would be areas that would be considerably darker and other areas with no staining at all,,after all,it's not like they are human and wanting to get a uniform dirt bath such as sun tanning.She is a diffrent color for sure,,Yellow or Brite Peach!!!

 

[DreamBird]

I have to admit that, at first I thought it was possible it could be from dust bathing but...She has been basically the same for months, and, like I said, she never visits that side of the park where there is the red dust. But who knows ! Now I'm doubting again, haha. xD
So to check, I'll go to the zoo and take some shots for you guys, and so I'll let you know. Probably I can go there tomorrow, or the on Sunday...If only weather could be better.
Thanks for telling me it's a hen, I really wasn't sure. >.>

I'll keep you all updated, thanks for all of your replies !

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Ask a coordinator at the zoo of they would export her to me in the USA!! She will have a great new home at Pea Palace.If you look thru some of Resolutions posts he has a pic of a yellow colored peacock which he attributed to it's diet,,,

 

[AquaEyes]

Interesting. Do you know if this bird has any offspring at the zoo? If it's the same mutation as the white peafowl here, then it's white because it has two White genes. If it's been there for a few years, and the peafowl there breed freely, you should see some peafowl with a few white feathers (they'd be split to White). If it's the only one like it there, has had breeding opportunities, and no other peafowl show any white feathers, I'd lean more towards it likely being a different mutation.

 

[SuperPeacockman]

I kind of doubt the dust bath dirt thing because of the uniformity of the color. I mean I cant see any clean white areas on the bird.

 

[AquaEyes]

Are there a lot of oil palms growing at this park?

 

[DreamBird]

@ frenchblackcopper - If they are to ever ship any of the birds to USA or any country in the world, you'd probably get a rather expensive price since people really adore money like crazy here

Wouldn't know about the diet they give the birds, though.

@ SuperPeacockMan - That has to be checked, thus I will see if I can go to the zoo hopefully this Saturday, or next week. Weather's been pretty bad lately.

@ AquaEyes - I hope I will answer your first question with this : I'm not sure if the peafowl's been here for a long time, and since I only started to pay regular visits last year, I do not know if there were any breeding opportunity for this one, nor about the offsprings. We do have some Dark pieds (I don't remember if they are also considered split to white if that's different), with white primaries, and very small white feathers on throat, or I saw a peahen with only a single white feather on her back. As you could see we also have just pure whites, but they appear to be older than the peafowl we are talking about. The latter is the only one I saw with that "colour" so far, and I do recall the peafowl hanging out with one of our older white males for some time, then went it's own way.

I hope this was the answers you were asking for, sometimes, being french, it is possible that I might not understand too good. As for the oil palms, I haven't really paid attention, but I can check for you when I go back there, as well as I go check for the peafowl.

 

[AquaEyes]

Well, if you're seeing peafowl with "split to White" characteristics, then the peacock in your pics is more likely the same mutation as the whites here. I asked about the oil palms because their fruit is very high in carotenoids, and if the peafowl eat a lot of them, this might be a cause of the "tint" to the white plumage. There are other foods which can cause this same effect, but I was thinking about the red palm fruit oil we have as a supplement for the birds in my lab at the time I wrote that response.