Mutation on wild peacock in Sri Lanka.

[Dany12]

That's what Kermit wrote in 2008 about that pic :


Believe it or not this photo is of a wild Singhalese Peafowl female taken on an island off the coast of Sri Lanka. This mutation has been known by Asian collectors for centuries and has always been exceedingly uncommon. It is from this mutation, captured from the wild, that the Emperors of Japan and China generated both Black Winged and Harlequin peafowl sports.

Not very precise on this little island on the coast !

Here is another pic (2009) of this mutation in the National Park of Bundala in the south of the country.



Map : http://www.srilankaecotourism.com/images/bundala_map.gif

And then this picture taken at Wilpattu National Park in the north :



http://orientalbirdimages.org/birdi...pecies&Bird_ID=099&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

Map : http://www.srilankaecotourism.com/images/wilpattu_map.gif

On this photo of a peahen from Sri Lanka can be seen that the last feathers of the wing are dark or black ... with the standart blue peahen they are gray/green - brown.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaminda-bandara/5302638916/lightbox/

Conclusion :

When I ask to Google images of " peafowl " ..... he gives me more than 80% of male ... peacock photo.
Females are rarely photographed !
When I ask to Google images corresponding to " peafowl Sri Lanka " I got photo of peacock and 3 pics of peahen presenting a mutation and NO pics of male mutant !

The mutation is present only with females .... WHY ?

 

[Arbor]

Interesting photos. I have seen the first one often, but the second looks similar, with the third looking like a partial. It would seem to me that possibly since the sex chromosome for the female is as it is, that the effect may only be attributed to the females. It will be interesting if this ever becomes available in North america. I think the first two females look stunning (the third too, but I'm not really one for pied looking birds). Any one with contacts in Sri Lanka?

 

[Arbor]

I wonder what the young look like? Are they similar to blackshoulder, or wild type blue. Since the hen in the blackshoulder variety shows more difference in the initial colour of the bird, it may be that the colouring of the male version of the sri lanka hens above is not really much different.

I also like the artwork you have listed in the thread below from japan (post 168). Notice the hen beside the white male is of different colouration than the other.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/590975/the-dragon-bird-green-peafowls/160

 

[SuperPeacockman]

I am fairly certain that Japanese art is modern, what I wonder I why no one has taken these into captivity a propagated them hear.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Hey,
Just wanted to let you know that those pictures are Chinese, not Japanese...

 

[Dany12]

In fact, if you look closely it's not a color mutation or pattern but an discoloration !
The bird on the first pic is absolutely not a black shoulder peahen!

A peahen from Wilpattu Park in Sri Lanka:



This discoloration (progressive or not) appears only on females.
The males in Sri Lanka are more than perfect ... the wings are super well drawn! ..... never black shoulder or partial BS.



So if some believe they are dealing with semi-leusistiques birds ...Pied birds. they are wrong!

Some domestic hens have similar discoloration .... for me it is not a Pied peahen ,here a spalding hen ... !



Other discolorations are progressive Pied types:
Here a muticus hen.

In the beginning: and later :



The gradual or progressive discoloration may be present in the two sexes.





By green peacocks also some stains are affected with discoloration:
Sometimes it is epistasis which affects many more females than males.
The epistasis is progressive but slower than the progressive Pied .
It never ends with an all-white bird!



I do not think that the peahen from Wilpattu Park in Sri Lanka have epistasis because the white feathers are very localized ... for example on the back. In the case of epistasis white feathers are interspersed throughout the body.
.... And very weird on the pants!

Spalding has a few cases!




Some say that epistasis is due to a vitamin deficiency or micronutriments. I have doubts ....why in the same group (even same conditions of food ...etc ...) some birds have discolored feathers and others not ?
Why is there no cases of epistasis in IB peacock ?they are a thousand times more present in our breedings than green peacocks!

This genetic characteristic is also present in some groups muticus imperator in nature ... a deficiency in the nature seems to me improbable especially if the birds frequent these places ... since the beginning of the world ( lol).

Here a captive bird in Thailand with such a "Pied coloration".



For me it is not epistasis and it is not a Pied mutation because only females are affected.
Green peahens from South China have sometime those white faethers on the wings too.

 

[MinxFox]

I am glad to see all of the photos you have compiled. I have wondered the same thing how it could be a vitamin issue if birds in the wild show this characteristic as well.

 

[FrankYLegend]

Take a look at this video:

This is a wild peahen from Yunnan ("Pavo antiqus"). She appears to be gravid in this video and is flying with her family.

The first assumption people have is inbreeding - but this is probably not the case. Green Peafowl have gone through major population bottlenecks in the past as island species as most of Southeast Asia flooded, so they are used to inbreeding.

In captivity it may be due to soy or other problems. I've seen it in captive Swinhoe's as well.

Most of the birds Dani posted are hybrid except the last one which appears to be pure.

Here is a captive female in Taiwan:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/abelard1005/4557766473/in/photostream/

This may be the imperator from the Red River, which is now extinct. There used to be an all-white form that was sometimes depicted in Japanese paintings.


Also note the white remiges on the female - just like the wild Yunnan hen.

 

[Dany12]

Pavo antiqus ... if it exists ! ... I want a proof ... coming from China !
Here is probably the famous Pavo antiqus


Pavo muticus alba is probably a myth.... too !
Crossings of any kind with Pavo cristatus never shouwn just the beginning of a white feather with colorful eye.

 

[FrankYLegend]

Yunnan researchers are probably aware of it but it hasn't been described formally.

White peafowl mutation results from hybridization with Green Peafowl, so does the Black-Shouldered.