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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Baby peacocks FINALLY arrived!

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I was starting to get worried, as we were now two weeks beyond the usual date that peahens and their new chicks start wandering the neighborhood. Then, yesterday, it finally happened--baby chicks! The mother peahen was in my neighbor's front yard with her five little chicks. The sun was completely in the wrong spot for good photos, but I had to work with what I had, so I started snapping away. As of today I still haven't had any baby peacocks in my yard, but it's just a matter of time. Once they're here I'll get better photos, but for now here are a few from yesterday:







If you're interested in seeing a lot of photographs of peacocks in varying stages of maturity, please see our earlier post, Baby peacocks in my yard

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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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