my new free range peacocks

[gaza]

hi group,after nearly 2 weeks,of being loose,all was fine.
of the 3 ,the youngest is the most skitish!!
well,sunday,he ran around,scaring the other two,to the point,ALL flew off!!
well,after several hours,2 came back,but the third[the skitish one],has yet to return.
i have looked all over my neighbourhood,but cannot find him.
i can only see into,maybe 25%of my neighbours yards,so he could be close,but i cannot see him!
the birds always "honked/screammed in the mornings,and thought for sure,if he heard them,he would return.
but since his escape,NO ONE has made a sound!!
these birds have never been outside of my fence/20 feet high banana tree surroundings,so feel,that he must have strayed to far and gotten lost?
what do you think the chances are of him comming back?
just got home now and saw a peacock in the steet,infront of my house,so thought it was him.
turns out to be one of the two that remained!!
he was walking around my fence,not knowing how to get back in.
when i opened the car door,he ran to me,so i grabbed him and put him over the fence.
i was going to leave him out side of the fence,so he could figure out how to get back in on his own,but he looked to stressed/upset.
should i,in the future just let them figure it out for them selves?
my goal,is ,as my yard is so small,to get them to roam my street,but return for feed,roost
i know he will be fine,but just would like to know where he is.
thank goodness,the most tame,the leader came back,as this is why the the other followed.
he has to see me ALL the time,or he will not sit still!!
gary

 

[MinxFox]

Since the skittish one is missing, he might not come back since he is the least tame. He could be in a yard somewhere, and they can travel very far. I still am not so sure on your idea to free-range them because they aren't very good with jumping fences. It is like this...If they want to get out of the yard they will jump or fly over the fence, but if they want to get back in they somehow forget they can fly and freak out and pace back and forth around the fence or stay close to the fence. When I free-ranged two adult peafowl they roosted in a tree that was right next to our neighboor's fence. In the mornings they would fly down from the tree and land in his backyard. They wouldn't go over the short fence to come back to our yard, so we would always leave the gate open conecting us to the neighboor so they could escape, still they weren't very smart at walking out so we would herd them out the opening, which I hated doing because it freaked them out being rounded up. Eventually around Christmas my Peacock just left. One day he just wasn't there. Finally we heard from a person across the street saying one day they saw a peacock in their yard. It was too late when we finally found out about it, so he was long gone by then. Then further and further away we were hearing of a peacock sighting only to get there and find nothing. The peahen left to and when across the street but we caught her in someone's nice backyard lying around sunning herself so we netted her and now she is in a pen. I am not trying to say that free-ranging doesn't work, but it can be pretty devistating...Send out fliers saying you are missing a peacock as soon as you can, this helped us find out about our peacock being spotted at several places.

 

[deerman]

One thing to remember when free range , no mater what it is, Ok if they stay on your property. If they go anywhere and do damage , you will have to pay for the repair, scratch the new car next door, or even pay for that car that ran off the road to keep from hitting your peacock in the road.


So beware if they don't stay on your property.

 

[jrsqlc]

Quote:
That is a VERY good point that alot of folks over look

 

[Jmanvanatta]

did you ever find him

 

[Cherokeeangel]

I do not Freerange my birds but I had a India Blue Peacock get out of his pen ( my potbellied pig had escaped her pen and apparently thought the flight cage looked comfy) I was heartbroken I had raised Thundar since he was about 3 months old he is almost 4 . I placed a missing pet ad in Craigslist , after several weeks of no return or no one calling on the missing bird I bought another adult India blue Peacock for my hen. I kept looking for Thundar . I decided to put up Missing Posters and run another Missing pet ad in Craigslist this time expanding the search area to the two next closest towns as well as my own ( I live within 5 miles from each of them) I started getting calls of a Peacock in town about 8.5 miles away so I went to check it out. Two times went out no sighting , not a peep from the bird. I got more 4 calls all from same housing development so I went again. I saw the bird this time, it looked like my Thundar. I called him by name he turned and looked at me , I called in my peacock voice he responded, acted like my Thundar. He had been missing over a month at this point. Apparently this neighborhood adopted the bird, as a neighborhood pet calling him Kevin, they had dishes of feed & water out for him and it became a neighborhood ritual to "find the peacock" All the neighbors got into the mix, small childern running after him calling Kevin, Kevin , old folks on their motorized scooters, all the men who thought they could do just the perfect peacock call key word their being peacock, not peahen and even hunters using their wood duck whistles . Although all thought this circus was helping , my poor bird just wanted to come home . The neighbors asked me when the bird was on a 2nd story roof will he come down to you? Not with 30 anxious people awaiting him on the ground I replied. I left for the evening the bird was roosting for the night. The people from the neighborhood told me about a neighbor about 5 blocks away on the cusp of the city/country the bird had went to "farmer Phils" house several times and had walked into his dog kennel in his back yard but it didn't have a roof so he just flew out. I spoke with Farmer Phil on my way home , we devised a plan if I could get him back to Farmer Phils house he would cover the kennel and we would pen him. I returned at 7:30 the next morning Thundar still on the roof , I looked up at him and said come on Thundar time to go home. Threw a handful of cat food on the ground and he flew to my feet. Now to get him to walk the 5 blocks to farmer Phils.... BELIEVE It or not, I just asked him to go to Farmer Phils, go to the pen ... and off he went straight to Farmer Phil's house me walking right behind him. We got him penned and I walked in and picked him up. Farmer Phil asked me why did I think he kept going to his house. It was simple it was like our house, Peacock flight cage with Cyclone fence sides looked like the dog kennel, Chicken pen to the right and an almond orchard directly behind. Thundar was lost but really just wanted to go home. He is home safe and sound and has found a new love with a blackshoulder female I rescued when he was gone on his big adventure. Don't give up on your bird, place ad's in Craigslist put up missing animal posters around your neighborhood and know that they can travel pretty far. My bird was almost 10 miles away. Good luck