Red Buff Spalding FOUNDER FLOCK -digresses into peafowl in general

[MinxFox]

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Do you have a larger version of that identification picture so we can see the names and details better?

 

[Resolution]

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Wow Clinton9 ! This is some really fantastic work -and you just flipped this out in a few hours? The artist illustrating the monograph took months to produce those identification plates.

If you don't mind I'd like to make some critiques on your illustration and descriptions for you to further the quality of the work (which is excellent).

note erection of nuchal hood at upper hind neck

wild Pavo cristatus males, note the morphology of the crest and its position on the head.

note the morphology of forecrest plumes is different from that of the hind crest note nuchal hood at hind neck is slightly erected

Green Peafowl, note the morphology of the crest and its position on the head.
1. Green Peafowl are dissimilar to Indian Peafowl in that their crests are situated more centrally on the crown of the head. Additionally, there is a tall mound within which the crest is supported.
This mound also conceals the double crest of the Green Peafowl. The crest mound is mostly absent in the Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus and much reduced in some forms of Green Peafowl. It is very prominent in annamensis and spicifer.

Subadult Afropavo male growing in its first forecrest bristles. Note- the position of the crest upon the crown is still further forward in the Congo Peafowl

Mature Afropavo male with fully developed forecrest bristles.

Mature Rheinardia male with both crests, occipital ruff and nuchal hood erected.



Digression: The double crest is a primitive condition amongst peafowl. We can deduce as much because the two most primitive peafowl genera Rheinardia and Afropavo ( that is to say, these two genera are the earliest offshoots of the monophyletic clade, which peafowl alonge belong. The Congo Peafowl is closely allied with common ancestor of the Indian Peafowl and all the Green Peafowl. The Crested Argus is closely allied with the common ancestor of both species of Great Argus and what is more, it is also related to the ancestor of the Congo Peafowl.)

 

[Resolution]

Getting back to your illustrations.

1. Lack of mound supporting the crest
2. Placement of crest a bit too far behind on head

3.The species/races

This specimen is not of the nominate race of spicifer. It does however, share the same astonishing blue violet hues of the head and throat of all spicifer forms.
a. Pavo spicifer spicifer The nominate Burmese Peafowl is like other races of this species, incredibly blue about the head and upper neck, even surprisingly so. You can probably visualise the secondary wing covert speculum of the Indian Peafowl. You know the spot- it's the most exquisitely pigmented portion of the entire bird. The colour is darkest navy blue caught aflame with the most arresting cobalt blue you've ever seen. Now, magnify that by eight and you'll have the head and upper neck of spicifer. An important difference will be the presence of vivid violet iridescence in these feathers not to be seen on the Indian Peafowl. So truly, the Burmese Peafowl exhibits a most astonishing violet blue on its throat, crown and crest ( which glows to turquoise blue). Your nominate spicifer has a green head. The demarcation point between the dark violet blue of the head and throat contrasts dramatically with the neutral periwinkle green or lilac grey of the neck. There is no such demarcation amongst imperator races. It is present in all spicifer races.

b. spicifer arakensis The placement of your malar war stripe is spot on but it's a bit orange. The nominate spicifer has this hue of war stripe. Both forms share the same surface area of bare facial skin.The irides of spicifer arakensis are distinctly pale, not so much as the Cambodian but paler than the Annametic species. The under eye region of spicifer arakensis is distinctly grey - like a fresh black eye in appearance. The neck of spicifer arakensis is a truly unusual hue- it's basically periwinkle with turquoise green edges.

c. imperator siamensis is just about spot on but there is no demarcation line between head and upper neck. I think perhaps the malar war stripe needs some additional attention to detail.

Note, Central Indochina Dry Forests Thailand and Cambodia are inhabited by imperator The Greater Annamite Mountain Range is inhabited by annamensis. Their range extends north into Laos and southern eastern Yunnan China. This same species is represented in the Malaysian race "muticus muticus" formerly of the Pahang of Malaysia and now extinct. The Indochinese imperator inhabits what was underwater for tens of thousands of years. They are a newly derived form, likely descended of an imperator race from southern central Yunnan. Notice where the Cardamom Mountain Range is. This is where Lewis's Black Silver Pheasant is endemic as is the Cardamom Dragonbird Pavo annamensis bokorensis. This is a new form not described formally. There is or rather was an additional form of the Indochinese imperator native to the coastal lowlands of Vietnam called the Hue imperator. This bird has a blue sheen that makes it difficult to distinguish from hybrids with Indian peafowl. Its crest is short and sheath shaped in the northern eastern most regions. There are still birds in the Red River and Black River tributaries. There was a white color phase of the Hue imperator imported by the thousands to Japan over the centuries. It is now extinct. We will discuss all the green peafowl forms at length in a manuscript on Peafowl to be published in 2014.

d. My opinion annamensis annamensis is not a form of imperator though both live in Indo-China. Annamensis is genetically older and inhabits a very different ecosystem than the imperator. Annametic Peafowl inhabit high elevations in broadleaf evergreen and broadleaf deciduous forest. Indo-Chinese Peadowl inhabit lowland dry deciduous forest. Consequently, their voices and behaviors are quite distinctive and imperator holds itself horizontally like cristatus. Races of Annamensis ( including Malaysian, SW Cambodian and SE Yunnan) are very vertical birds. Annamensis exhibit blue back plates and shocking cobalt blue heads and upper necks. The hue of their neck plumage contrasts dramatically with that of the head and throat. They are golden but a heavy bronze and copper hued gold in a wide band on each larger neck scale. The rest of the neck is near luminescent -almost day glow spring green. It has a daquiri ice turquoise hue to it in the nominate form.

The most alarming of all the Annametic Peafowls is the Cardamom Dragonbird Pavo annamensis bokorensis, which inhabits the Elephant and Cardamom Mountain ranges in Southern Western Cambodia. This semi-species (probably a actually a distinct species unto itself) has the most vividly blue black and dorsal surface of the its train is ice pink in most light. The scepter plumes- those longest feathers in the train with Y shape are highly iridescent and tipped in cobalt blue fringe. The female is strongly barred , reminiscent of a female currasow in contrast/ demarcation. The voice is ventriloqual even more so than other Green Peafowl and the chorus call, dueting vocalizations between member of a pair have some of the racuous ratatat of Congo Peafowl and Crested Guineafowl as well as some of the booming of the Afropavo. One bokorensis male that belonged to an aviculturist in Europe was the sire of a sizable proportion of the so-called "muticus muticus". Rodney Michael's core stock were sired by the bird photographed with his tail up. This lineage composite between Cardamom and Malaysian Green Peafowl was shipped around the world.

 

[Resolution]

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Do you have a larger version of that identification picture so we can see the names and details better?

I'll look but think the editor has the larger copies.

 

[MinxFox]

Okay thanks.

 

[clinton9]

Hi Resolution,
I had been studying the moults, plumages of IB peafowls and I only started learning about races of green peafowls you had been studying. I had been studied the dead IB peafowls-1 adult male, 3 1-year-old males, 1 1-yearold female.
I had never got dead green peafowls as New Zealand is far behind USA and there are no green peafowls in NZ zoos now and IB peafowls are common in NZ, along with BS and white, pied IB peafowls available in NZ.

I had excellant skills at drawing & painting birds. I were careful in measuring the distances between eyes and beak tips and back of skulls, I measured the wings, trains, tail feathers and bones and bodies, heads before I draw the peafowls.
I counted the numbers of flight feathers and their coverts, tail feathers correctly.

Here is my study of adult IB peacock.

My drawings of wings of adult male & female BS peafowl. Underside wing & secondaries of adult female BS peafowl were not available, due to lack of dead BS and no photoes of open wings of both male & female BS peafowls.

So the crests on green peacocks"s heads were of correct distance from beak tips because I measured the distance between beak tips & crests & eyes.

Problem is I were confused about words "war stripes" and "malar" and "malar war stripes"...what these words means ???
I suggest you draw the head of green peacock and write names as malar war stripes and malar and spot ect, otherwise members cannot understand what "malar war stripes" means.

Clinton.

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[Resolution]

Are you kidding me? This work is astonishing. Do you need any materials? Your attention to detail is beyond anything I've ever seen anyone do for peafowl. Have you read Collins Field Guide: Birds of the Palearctic - Non-Passerines ? Your work is on par with those plates of the Bustards and Cranes.

female Pavo javanensis

mother and offspring Pavo imperator siamensis

[i Fritz describes this morphotype as "Northern Thailand" morphotype. Look like a form of Annamensis to me.[/i]

female Pavo annamensis

male Hue Pavo imperator tonkinensis ( yes it looks like a hybrid but its DNA does not substantiate that theory.

male Tennasirim Pavo spicifer tanintharyi (yes it looks like a hybrid but it's not.

Shan spicifer

male female hybrid Sharmapa "Amethyst" (Buddhist Temple Gardens in Sikkim and Tibet) Note- the Amethyst is an interesting, mostly wild, hybrid race between Indian Peafowl from Bhutan and male Burmese and/ or one of the Yunnan forms. The birch/aspen bark pattern and colour of the female is reminiscent of Black Shouldered Peafowl and has emerged as the dominant phenotype with no admixture of Black Shouldered peafowl. Some believe that the Black Shouldered Peafowl is actually a descendant of one of these Buddhist temple hybrid forms. We have to remember that these are not random hybrids. Some of their progenitors arrived in these temple valleys with their sacred groves over two thousand years ago. Most of their ancestors were Northern Indian Peafowl but Green Peafowl from the tropical pine forests of N.W. Yunnan and/or N.E. Burma and/or Assam were carried to these mountain outposts by monks from the east (Burma) versus the west (India) . These mountain valleys are thousands of feet higher in elevation than any naturally occurring population of peafowl in their native haunts. The birch bark morph of the females is fascinating from a founder population perspective.

 

[Resolution]

The proportions on the heads of your peafowl are perfect. I hope you didn't read anything I wrote as critical. Your work is better than anything I've seen in a very long while. You rock dude.

malar (from Latin mala ‘jaw, cheek-bone’)

jaw bone war stripe

Malar Stripe


Illustrated Malar Stripe in Ornithology journal.

As you can see, the appropriate term for this portion of the face of a bird is Malar stripe but you've probably noticed that the bare facial skin of green peafowl doesn't really equate with the feathered moustache of a finch so I came up with the term Malar War Paint. It's not my intention to confuse anyone.


Here are some skull photos that might be useful for your incredible natural history illustration in the future ( may contribute to your proportion data).

Indian Peafowl Skull

juvenile female Green Peafowl Skull

Congo Peafowl Skull

 

[clinton9]

Hi Resolution,
I did not not mind your critiques, as I understood you only been very helpful in correct my mistakes regarding my drawing of green peacock heads. But please do not use the word "rock dude" as it is not nice.
No, I am not kidding.

No, I do not have a Collins Feild Guide about "Palearctic non-passerines" bustards & cranes, but I do have lot of books of birds.

BS=Black-shouldered.

Yes please, I do need materials ...see below

Opened wings, both upperside and underside, of

adult male BS peafowl
adult female BS peafowl
1-year-old BS peafowl
2-year-old BS peafowl
adult male spalding peafowl
adult female spalding peafowl
adult male green peafowl (any races)
adult female green peafowl (any races)

Question: Are the colours & pattens on trains, same in all races of green peacocks ???

Thankyou very much for photoes of peafowl skulls, I appreciate your help.

Clinton.

 

[Resolution]

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Thank you Clinton. Thank you very much for sharing your passion. I'm sure everyone reading this is truly grateful. So few people are interested in natural history illustration and even fewer have such aptitude. I've only seen a very few illustrations of peafowl that looked remotely like peafowl much less awesome like yours.