Partially white peacock visiting my yard

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I've been so excited about the [very late!] arrival of pea chicks this season, I really wasn't thinking in terms of something else being as exciting. But there is!

Although I've seen him before, his visits were very infrequent, but now--all of a sudden--this beautiful boy has become a regular in my yard. From my research, I believe that he's an India Blue Pied peacock, although he may be an India Blue Pied White-eyed peacock. I'll have to do a bit more looking around to figure it out for sure.

Meanwhile, please enjoy some pics I've taken during the last few days of this unusual, lovely peacock. He's still a youngster, probably between one and two years old.

Closeups of his side and back feathers; note the beginnings of white feathers on his back--which will hopefully become long, beautiful white 'eye' feathers when he matures.

Just hanging out on my garage roof:

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Probably no babies this year; where are the peacocks?

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As May approached I happily anticipated the annual parade of mother peahens and their new little chicks. Looking back at photos from previous years, I knew that this parade typically starts right at mid-May. So by the second week of May I had taken up my usual spot for peacock chick watching at my patio table, my Nikon D5100 at the ready, just waiting to start snapping pic after pic of adorable peacock babies.

I waited. And waited. Mid-May came and went. May ended. No chicks. June arrived. No pea chicks. June 5th, 10th, 15th passed...but not a single baby peacock. What the heck was up?!

The world famous Los Angeles Arboretum is only a mile from my house. It's where the peafowl population in my area originated early in the last century. I finally decided to give them a call to see if they knew of any reason for the dearth of peafowl chicks this year. To my surprise, they were not the least bit surprised. Turns out there's nothing to be alarmed about--it's just a natural cycle.

Apparently, when there's a very large number of chicks one season--as we had last spring/summer--there may be few to no chicks the following season. The folks at the Arboretum had seen a total of three babies, all of which were spotted well into June.

As I write this it's June 20th and I have yet to see even one pea chick. It's sad, but at least I know there's nothing wrong, such as a disease, to account for the lack of babies this year.

I won't give up all hope until summer is over, because there's still the chance...the slight, remote chance, that a few babies will arrive. If that should happen, I'll definitely post photos!

Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of a family from this time last year:









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Baby peacocks should arrive any day now!

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Going back through photos I've taken in the spring over the years, I found that the earliest arrival [in my yard] of baby peacocks was on May 14th. Today is May 11th...so they should start showing up any minute now. I can't wait! My new camera, a Nikon D5100 with its 70-300mm lens attached, will be ready and waiting. As soon as I see the first chick(s) and their mother peahen(s) I'll be snapping photos like crazy.

Meanwhile, be sure to check out our baby peacocks post, which includes a lot of photos of peahens, peachicks at various stages of age, and young/immature peacocks and peahens.

Mating season in peacock/peafowl/peahen country

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If you've read our post about baby peacocks in our backyard, you're already familiar with one aspect of living in peafowl country (near the Arboretum in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia). BUT! Did you know that during mating season it's REALLY LOUD around here?!

As absolutely beautiful as peacocks are to look at, they're equally loud and annoying during mating season--which stretches from roughly January through April. Their squawk is something to behold...er, well, hold your hands over your ears!

The males and females both squawk, but when there are two males, especially two males of similar maturity (and of breeding age) in the same area, they hold squawk-fests that you have to hear to believe.

My favorite peacock, whom I call Mr Peacock, allows me to take as many pictures--right up close--as I like, so one day I sat on the driveway steps and just snapped pic after pic as he shrieked. While I was snapping photos of him there was another male, a little older I think, about 15 feet away--and they were participating in one of those aforementioned squawk-fests. Wow!

Here are a few of the pictures I took that day, with Mr Peacock squawking away at the other male:









And now for a [very brief] breather...




Here are a few from a couple days later; again Mr Peacock was bellowing it out with his rival who was nearby, but this time both had their feathers fanned:








Well, there you go. A visual glimpse at mating season in peacock land. I'll spare you the actual sounds by NOT posting an audio clip!

In case you're wondering, no, I don't actually mind all the noise. I love the peacocks and take the shrieking as part of living where they roam the neighborhoods, gracing us with their extraordinary beauty. Small price to pay, you know?


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