Green Peafowl: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Birds That Walk · day 5 of 7

Five facts

1. Males and females both wear shimmering green feathers on the neck and chest that look like the scales of a Chinese dragon.
2. A male's train of eyespot feathers can reach 2 m. After the breeding season he sheds it, and then males and females are hard to tell apart.
3. Unlike many birds, it does not glide. In the air it keeps flapping, showing off pale orange or buff wing feathers.
4. At dawn and dusk, males call a loud ki-wao again and again from their roosts. Females answer with an equally loud call.
5. Europeans first described it from a Japanese painting, so Linnaeus wrote that it lived in Japan, even though it is not native there.

The quiz

1. What do the green peafowl's neck feathers look like?

• Snowflakes
• Chinese dragon scales (correct)
• Tiger stripes
• Fish fins

They are shiny green and resemble Chinese dragon scales.

2. What happens to the male's long train after the breeding season?

• It turns white
• It grows even longer
• He sheds it (correct)
• It changes to red

The male moults his train outside the breeding season.

3. How does the green peafowl fly?

• With constant flapping, no gliding (correct)
• Mostly gliding on warm air
• It cannot fly at all
• Only by hopping between branches

Its flight is a true flapping flight without gliding.

4. When do males give their loud ki-wao call?

• Only at midday
• Only when it rains
• Only at midnight
• At dawn and dusk (correct)

Males call from their roosts at dawn and dusk.

5. Why did Linnaeus write that the green peafowl lived in Japan?

• A Japanese sailor told him so
• Europeans first knew it from a Japanese painting (correct)
• He saw one in a Japanese forest
• Its feathers were sold in Japan

It was first described in Europe from a Japanese painting.

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