Peafowl "alertness"?

[frenchblackcopper]

Living about 1 1/2 hrs drive straight south of Chicago,we seem to be directly under a very busy flightparh for the outbound jets heading south out of Chicago. Normally every evening I pop a bag of popcorn for the "group" and spend time with them. Tonight this routine was interrupted by tilling the garden but once that chore was done,the "group' came to the fence looking for their nightly popcorn "fix" which I didn't have. But while there at the fence I started hearing them start to make their shallow "alert" tone,and then all of them had their heads cocked sideways,with one eye looking upwards. Now when 34 peafowl all have their heads leaning sideways,with one eye skyward, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.It was then I noticed a silver speck,that of a southbound jet probably 25,000 feet up or more. After it was outta sight,,about 3 minutes later they all did the exact same thing again,as another jet flew over.Tomorrow night if there is no clouds I have to take my camera out and get a picture of this,,,68 eyeballs,all heads tilted with one of the two eyes looking upwards,,,it's funny they don't look "head-on" towards the jets,,rather cock their heads and use one eye to watch what has their interest. They must have amazing eyesight to notice and keep watching something almost silent and the size of a speck of silver sand. They do entertain easy tho..

 

[sourland]

Very frequently I will see my pigeons tilting their heads and looking skyward. If I look intently enough, I will finally see a hawk somewhere within their sight range. It is all about alertness and survival.

 

[MinxFox]

I have been in my peafowl pen feeding the peafowl with all of them walking around, eating, preening, ect and all of a sudden they all stop what they are doing and stare up into the sky. They cock their head like you said. Sometimes they make a low purr/growl noise. They spot the hawk way before I see it, and they do spot it up high! A mockingbird likes to make the hawk's call, but the peafowl can tell the difference between the Mockingbird mimicking the hawk and the real thing. I free-ranged a pair for a while and the peahen would dart into the bushes if she caught sight of a hawk, or they would freeze in place and look up.

Here is a picture of my pied peahen Damsel looking up at a hawk:

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Minxfox,,,yep,,,that's the look,,,head so sideways they look about ready to fall over,,,imagine 30 or more all frozen stiff in the same position,,it's a Kodak moment,,and I gotta get a good picture of the "group" when they do this again.

 

[MinxFox]

Are all the peafowl feral or are they yours and they are free-range? That would be awesome to have 30 peafowl free-ranging.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

No,they all came from purchased eggs that I hatched last year,,,,they are all MINE,,,,Purples,India Blues,Midnights,Cameo's,Silver Pieds,Emerald Spalding Pieds,Bronze,,Charcoal,,,and the bator has about 30 more peacock eggs baking and rotating in it now,,,and I'm still waiting on 12 more eggs to come from 2 other won auctions,,,some call it "addiction",,

 

[MinxFox]

WOW that is a bunch of peas! Great variety too, are you trying to become a breeder?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Becoming a "Breeder" is many years down the road. At this time I'm mainly concentrating on hatching out enough of each "Pure" color or color mutation,pattern to have no less than a quad of each. I know the benefits of breeding mixed colors and patterns,but to me that is an easy way to just keep penning and recordkeeping to a minimum.I plan to keep each color,and mutation in seperate breeding pens,,ie with Cameo's keep a pen of Cameo B/S,Cameo W/E, and straight Cameo,,instead of putting all the Cameos in one pen together and never know for sure what is in the offsprings blood.Guess it comes from us owning and breeding Imported German Shepherds for over 30 years,,knowing the exact pedigrees of the dogs keeps known inherited traits in check.I like predictability,,,

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Small plains (pipers,cessnas) fly below a hundred feet by my pen all the time because the air field is so close by, my have just gotten used to it I guess.