The Indian Peafowl Scientific Name – Pavo Cristatus Location – Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India Date – January 2014 The Indian peafowl or blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large and brightly coloured bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia. The species was first named and described by Linnaeus in 1758. The name Pavo cristatus is still in use now. The earliest usage of the word in written English is from around 1300 and spelling variants include pecok, pekok, pecokk, peacocke, peocock, pyckock, poucock, pocok, pokok, pokokke, and poocok among others. The current spelling was established in the late 17th century. Peacocks are a larger sized bird with a length from bill to tail of 100 to 115 cm (40 to 46 inches) and to the end of a fully grown train as much as 195 to 225 cm (78 to 90 inches) and weigh 4–6 kg. Indian peafowl are among the largest and heaviest representatives of thePhasianidae. Their size, colour and shape of crest make them unmistakable within their native distribution range. The male is metallic blue on the crown, the feathers of the head being short and curled. The fan-shaped crest on the head is made of feathers with bare black shafts and tipped with blush-green webbing. A white stripe above the eye and a crescent shaped white patch below the eye are formed by bare white skin. The sides of the head have iridescent greenish blue feathers. The back has scaly bronze-green feathers with black and copper markings. The scapular and the wings are buff and barred in black, the primaries are chestnut and the secondaries are black. The tail is dark brown and the train is made up of elongated upper tail coverts (more than 200 feathers, the actual tail has only 20 feathers) and nearly all of these feathers end with an elaborate eye-spot. A few of the outer feathers lack the spot and end in a crescent shaped black tip. The underside is dark glossy green shading into blackish under the tail. The thighs are buff coloured. The male has a spur on the leg above the hind toe. The colours result not from any green or blue pigments but from the micro-structure of the feathers and the resulting optical phenomena.[23] The long train feathers (and tarsal spurs) of the male develop only after the second year of life. Fully developed trains are found in birds older than four years. The Indian peafowl is found mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but will also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas often indicate the presence of a predator such as a tiger. They forage on the ground in small groups and will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying, though they will fly into tall trees to roost. The bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology and is the national bird of India. The Indian peafowl is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Device – Canon 1Ds Mark III + Lens – Canon EF 28-300mm 1:3.5-5.6 L IS USM + Focal Length – 300mm + Aperture – F/8 + Shutter Speed – 1/250s + Exposure Mode – Manual + Metering – Matrix + ISO – 200.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 11:41:00 +0000
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