So sad, Lost one of my new peacocks today!

[deerman]

Yep, now do the same with the wild turkey.....Diet about the same, young stay with the mother as long as peachicks do. Mature about the same.

Peafowl and Turkey have so many thing in common.........

Nice photo shop on some of those pics.......

 

[Reeves]

Kermit - Good to see you "out and about" posting educational topics again ! Always enjoyed and learn from them !

 

[NateinFL]

Those were AMAZING PICTURES! THank you very much for sharing them with us all. I think they are so much more beautiful out in the wild in their natural state. Something about it is just so awesome. I wouldn't worry about those who might try to criticize your photos, I think they are WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Resolution]

JUST NOTES HERE COME BACK LATER
EDITING

Where were we now? Ah yes,
A.the long and arduous investment of peahens setting on clutches of great big cafe au lait eggs hidden on some elevated hillock obscured deep in tall marsh grass…

B.The vicarious intolerance of peacocks PACING rabbit trails transecting their nesting territory, in anticipation of the momentous event of peachicks hatching.
http://web.utk.edu/~wverplan/gt57/gb.html

C. On the dangers presented by that caste of opportunist chick thieves lurking about…the psychology of their senses…

D. and finally the clever MIMIC
http://books.google.com/books?id=4w...g#v=onepage&q=animal behavior mimetic&f=false

Preface : colouration , a living beacon, something that could only draw attention to itself.

While she has young chicks, the peahen is very secretive. This is of vital importance all the while she remains in the nesting territory, that is, when her tiny fragile chicks are most vulnerable. Most chick predation will occur here over the next few days and weeks. .

Indian Peafowl female Pavo cristatus cristatus with hidden chicks
She skulks about silently in the tall grass, her fragile, newly hatched chicks fairly cling to her, never venturing at this age far from her shadow. Though she may remain hidden to most looking for her comings and goings, she is forever in ear distance if not more or less directly under the watchful eyes of not only her mate but her one and even two year old progeny.

When a guild or tightly knit flock of peafowl share a small territory, it fascinating to observe how all the males remain in motion so long as their young chicks are moving through the grass. If a stork or deer were to move anywhere in the trajectory of the hidden peahen, the male closest to her vicinity saunters between the intruder and the female. His behavior does not seem at first glance to have anything to do with the peahen and indeed most will never see the chicks as all eyes are on her guardian. He picks at the ground disinterestedly and continues his non-committal arch. By now the next male in the peck order has adjusted his boundary line, remaining at a very specific distance from his male guild mate. The peacock beyond him follows suit and soon one appreciates the marvel of their symmetry, of the level of their cooperation. The guild of male peafowl basically form an exploded

Sri Lanka Peafowl female Pavo cristatus singhalensis

During the day it is the hulking juggernauts those wretched-breathed monitor lizards, the occasional lurking bird snake and the cunning black backed jackal, which she must avoid at all costs.
During the evenings its the legions of dreaded civets, five different individuals of five different species spiriting about at the first light of each sliver of moon. They'll creep about the low branches where she taken her chicks for their nocturnal slumber- that is, before they have developed sufficiently to reach the family's communal roosting tree, where no four footed animal could ever reach them.
Another predator for the young chicks at this stage is a very strange creature indeed.

I've included this photo to give you an idea of the scale of a mature Varanid. Monitor Lizards are amongst the most important predators of the nests of birds and reptiles alike. The peafowl and the Varanid have been in high stakes arms race for as long as both have been alive on this planet.

The peacock needs its train to defend the nest site only while the hen is depositing eggs in her nest- building up a clutch - and then incubating- he needs to retain his train long enough to defend a new nest if the first and even second are lost. He'll retain that train as long as his chicks are still within the cover of the nesting territory a full two weeks after they've hatched.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/28928 ( ultraviolet wavelengths )


signifying their moving from the dense grass into more open habitats shared with the adult-sized peafowl that belong in the same guild as their parents.

Subsequent to the complete adult plumage, both sexes will lose all their upper tail coverts, the moult synchronizing with the development of the chicks' first dorsal plumage. The development of little crest feathers on the peafowl chicks coincides with beginning of the adult peafowls' covert moult.
We spend so much time narrowly discussing peafowl in terms of males with their showy fans- we inadvertently neglect the natural history of the species in question and in doing so fail to place the appropriate significance on the simultaneous development of females and chicks working in tandem with that of the adult males.
The little peafowl chicks contour plumage- little shoulder pads and neat little crest reminiscent of a highly miniaturized Roman soldier helmet, these are the biological cues that stimulate the adult male peafowl that it's reproductive strategy has been successful for the period that the female and eggs/chicks were most vulnerable.
The fully trained male's guardianship of the nest site and adjacent nesting territory has passed. The next stage requires more cooperation from its guild mates.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Saw two that were.......one flying unless the sky color changed around the wing flight feathers...2 yr old blue with nice all green train...

Still some nice pics.......

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
Saw two that were.......one flying unless the sky color changed around the wing flight feathers...2 yr old blue with nice all green train...

Still some nice pics.......

I wish that I could claim that I took any of these photographs! They are so astonishing in their hue and depth. I think India is churning out some of the best wildlife photographers in the world, which makes a certain amount of sense since their national bird is the Indian Peafowl. Most of these photographs-~ 85% were taken in and around Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and depict the subspecies Pavo cristatus singhalensis , which is quite a bit more dramatically hued than the nominate Indian form. Other photos were taken in and around different wildlife parks in India and a few are from North America or European private aviculturists's and zoological park free-ranging peafowl. It's pretty astonishing how vivid a bird a wild Indian Peafowl is in comparison with even a free-ranging captive one. And as mentioned above, singhalensis is nothing short of an electrified version.


I've learned recently that certain genes responsible for pigment are turned on and turned off with the inclusion or removal of certain micronutrients and fatty acids in the diet. These nutrients must be a consistent portion of the diet for an entire year or more for all the results to be demonstrated but it's pretty exciting to see examples of it in action.
Flamingos are probably the best example of that but even a white peacock becomes an iridescent white peacock if fed specific ration through its moult process and onwards. The colour mutations of guineafowl react in much shorter time but their moult is gradual and desert birds like guineafowl tend to store nutrients in their fat layer, so this may be why the effects of certain supplements are so dramatic so early on. The new feathers have to be made up of certain amino acids- the balance of all nutrients through the regeneration of each cellular layer , not just the pin feathers but the cells that become pin feathers- so in other words- you start feeding your birds the right supplements now before the moult. As I'm sure you are all well-aware, the formation of new feather scales are developing in special follicle shafts right now several months before a moult takes place. Once these new feather buds reach a certain size, width and length, the plumage of the former year is moulted to make way for the new growth. It's analagous to losing a baby tooth to make way for an incisor- but this happens over and over again every year. Green Peafowl tend to moult earlier and harder than Indians, not because their breeding season begins earlier, but rather because their nutritional requirements are quite a bit different than those of the Indian. When the birds are fed a more optimal diet, the train remains intact for just as long and even longer than that of an Indian Peafowl. The cellular structure is reinforced like the rings on a tree- when that cellular reinforcement is missing, the quills fall out and this even before the new feathers have really begun growing to any extent. That's a different topic and I don't want to get too distracted before I finish up this opus on the Pavo cristatus.

I've very hard not to include any photos of birds contaminated with blood from other peafowl species or even domestic mutations.
It will be necessary a few blips ahead in this cyber-article to include photos of some domestic mutations to better illustrate some of the more difficult to describe morphological traits that peafowl possess.

Thanks Reeves for the 'shout out'. Always enjoy writing on different forums. Haven't been too inspired lately but since its so cold and rainy up here in VT. farming is sort of on hold for a minute.

 

[NateinFL]

Resolution[/quote :


I've learned recently that certain genes responsible for pigment are turned on and turned off with the inclusion or removal of certain micronutrients and fatty acids in the diet. These nutrients must be a consistent portion of the diet for an entire year or more for all the results to be demonstrated but it's pretty exciting to see examples of it in action.

Very interesting, makes perfect sense as well! These are the best photos yet of peacocks (peahens as well before I get criticized) on here. Thanks again for sharing these stunning pictures with us!!!

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Saw two that were.......one flying unless the sky color changed around the wing flight feathers...2 yr old blue with nice all green train...

Still some nice pics.......

I wish that I could claim that I took any of these photographs! They are so astonishing in their hue and depth. I think India is churning out some of the best wildlife photographers in the world, which makes a certain amount of sense since their national bird is the Indian Peafowl. Most of these photographs-~ 85% were taken in and around Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and depict the subspecies Pavo cristatus singhalensis , which is quite a bit more dramatically hued than the nominate Indian form. Other photos were taken in and around different wildlife parks in India and a few are from North America or European private aviculturists's and zoological park free-ranging peafowl. It's pretty astonishing how vivid a bird a wild Indian Peafowl is in comparison with even a free-ranging captive one. And as mentioned above, singhalensis is nothing short of an electrified version.


I've learned recently that certain genes responsible for pigment are turned on and turned off with the inclusion or removal of certain micronutrients and fatty acids in the diet. These nutrients must be a consistent portion of the diet for an entire year or more for all the results to be demonstrated but it's pretty exciting to see examples of it in action.
Flamingos are probably the best example of that but even a white peacock becomes an iridescent white peacock if fed specific ration through its moult process and onwards. The colour mutations of guineafowl react in much shorter time but their moult is gradual and desert birds like guineafowl tend to store nutrients in their fat layer, so this may be why the effects of certain supplements are so dramatic so early on. The new feathers have to be made up of certain amino acids- the balance of all nutrients through the regeneration of each cellular layer , not just the pin feathers but the cells that become pin feathers- so in other words- you start feeding your birds the right supplements now before the moult. As I'm sure you are all well-aware, the formation of new feather scales are developing in special follicle shafts right now several months before a moult takes place. Once these new feather buds reach a certain size, width and length, the plumage of the former year is moulted to make way for the new growth. It's analagous to losing a baby tooth to make way for an incisor- but this happens over and over again every year. Green Peafowl tend to moult earlier and harder than Indians, not because their breeding season begins earlier, but rather because their nutritional requirements are quite a bit different than those of the Indian. When the birds are fed a more optimal diet, the train remains intact for just as long and even longer than that of an Indian Peafowl. The cellular structure is reinforced like the rings on a tree- when that cellular reinforcement is missing, the quills fall out and this even before the new feathers have really begun growing to any extent. That's a different topic and I don't want to get too distracted before I finish up this opus on the Pavo cristatus.

I've very hard not to include any photos of birds contaminated with blood from other peafowl species or even domestic mutations.
It will be necessary a few blips ahead in this cyber-article to include photos of some domestic mutations to better illustrate some of the more difficult to describe morphological traits that peafowl possess.

Thanks Reeves for the 'shout out'. Always enjoy writing on different forums. Haven't been too inspired lately but since its so cold and rainy up here in VT. farming is sort of on hold for a minute.

Just remember when posting other people's pics lot of them are photo shopped, even changing the colors, cut and paste. I know some of those have been edit, look at the sky color around the flying peacock......

 

[Resolution]

Just remember when posting other people's pics lot of them are photo shopped, even changing the colors, cut and paste. I know some of those have been edit, look at the sky color around the flying peacock......

I wonder if perhaps my monitor is different from yours. I've studied these photos pretty carefully. Many of them are for my monograph on the galliformes and my editors promised me none of the photos had been retouched. Thanks for the heads up. I hope that the photos accentuate the text and visa vis.​

 

[thndrdancr]

Ok, now how do you get your domestic peafowl to EAT said protein?

Short of going out and catching bugs for them, mine are picky when it comes to most things, unless its fruit. They do love their fruit. I have tried moistened cat food, tuna, various types of meats, etc....

What can I use to entice them?