Tania Kettle

,

Ok, so now that I am calling our Peacock home, to come live on our deck and ruffle his tail feathers, let me tell you why I want one, and how they are so cool:

1) Peacocks are only native to Asia. 

I know, right? Yes, they are now in all parts of the world, but they originated from Asia.

2)  They are actually named, Peafowls, but they are commonly referred to, both male and female, as Peacocks.  

Only the males, Peacocks, have the beautiful tail feathers, the females, Peahens, do not.  

You also call a group of Peacocks a bevy, ostentation or muster.

3)  You can't tell the difference between a Peacock or Peahen when they are first born. 

It takes 3 months for the Peacocks to get colour, and 3 years to get their full booty feathers.

4)  A Peacock calls a Peahen, by shaking and shimmering his booty feathers. 

I kidd you not, this is an actual thing.

Peacocks do this weird rattling/shaking thing with their tail feathers, which give the illusion of spots hovering over a glittering background.  

But wait, it gets more interesting than that...

Penhens make their decision on which Peacock is going to get their Peahen booty, by their vibrations (feather shaking and movement), dancing, and their vocalisation (the sound ie: depth and timbre of their Peacock call).  

But no, wait...I still have more on the mating process...

Both Peacocks and Peahens, have this little tuft of feathers on the top of their head.  But for Peahens these are sensory feathers.

This means that when the Peacock shake their tail booty (at 25 times per second), the Peahen not only physically sees the Peacocks macho display, but feels it in her head feather sensors!  

Oh c'mon, is that not the most awesome thing ever?

5) Peacocks have lots of myths surrounding them like:

For the Greeks they were symbols of Immortality, Ashkenazi Jews use Golden Peacocks as symbols of Creativity, Early Christian Mosiacs depict Peacocks as the All Seeing God and in Ancient Persia, Peacocks symbolize the Tree of Life.

And of course, they are the National Bird of India.

And last but not least, I have to leave you with the weirdest fact of all.

6) Elderly Peahens can do sex inversion.

What might this be, you ask?

Well, it goes like this...

When Peahens stop producting Estrogen, they grow tail feathers and call like a Peacock.

It's their default development.

How fucking cool is that?

Wishing you much awesomeness.

T and Spirit

xx

* Ok, there's a bit of too-ing and fro-ing about whether Peahens can do sex inversion, from peeps that know Peacocks.

No one is 100% they can't, but no one can 100% confirm they can.

I'm going for can.

Obvously.