Peacock with maternal intincts?

[mirandaleecon]

So I have 4 ducks which are about 2-3 months old. They have been in an outdoor pen for the last month or so. I just started to free range them and my peacock (about 1 year old) has been following the ducks around and almost seems to corral them. When I pulled in the driveway today he made sure none of them were in the way of my car where he used to be the first one to block my path!
He also gets extremely agitated if we mess with them at all (one had angel wing that we had to wrap) and cries when we put them back in the pen without him.
Are peacocks normally this protective of young? He's got two peahen mates, which he is now ignoring while the ducks are out. And the peahens could care less about the ducks...just curious how normal this is. I do believe he is the reason I have not lost any of my flock lately. Not one loss since they began free ranging (knock on wood!!!)

 

[MinxFox]

Well I have read stories on here of peacocks that are very protective of chicken flocks and will wait until all the chickens are in their coop for the night before he enters and goes to bed. Normally though in these situations the peacock is the only peafowl that the person owns and thus he sees the chickens, guineas, ducks, etc as his responsibility and his flock. Did you hand raise this peacock and previously not have peahens or do you know if he grew up around ducks?

So yes peacocks can be protective of other birds. @zazouse on here has lots of free-range peafowl and other birds and she normally seems to say that her peafowl don't care much about what the other birds are up to. She may have a story about a peacock or peahen caring for another kind of bird.

I think there might have been some rare instances where people had a peacock that would let the peachicks sleep under his wings at night - which is usually what the peahen does!

 

[mirandaleecon]

That makes sense! Now that I think about it, they did share a pen for a month or two with my older ducks, and then a while longer in a pen right next to the ducks. He didn't seem to care about them then. Although now that they are free range full time, they choose to sleep on top of the duck pen most nights so maybe he thinks he's a duck lol

 

[MinxFox]

Next you will find him going for a swim!

 

[nevsma]

About 15 years ago when I only had a pair of peafowl, my peahen passed away leaving several two week old chicks. The male took over the entire rearing process. The chicks would follow him around all day long, and he would show them what was good to eat, and if they got chilled, he would sit on the ground and the chicks would warm up under him. At night, they would all fly up on the perch and they would sleep under his wings at night. he was a terrific father to those chicks. It was a beautiful sight to see.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm really amazed if the male pitches in. I thought that's only with penguins & EMUS, the males hatch the eggs & cares for the babies.

 

[mirandaleecon]

That's awesome! My peacock is being a better mother to those ducks than the actual mothers!

 

[BYC-user-174785]

I'm really amazed if the male pitches in. I thought that's only with penguins & EMUS, the males hatch the eggs & cares for the babies.

Male pheasants also play a role in rearing chicks. In fact male pheasants will go broody and hatch chicks out. Pheasant families are a nice sight to see.