When our neighbors, the Kolbs, decided to add Peafowl to their flocks of birds including Chickens, Ducks and Guinea, they got them young and kept them penned on their property for a few months to provide them a solid foundation of “home turf”.  Unlike other bird flocks, Peafowl are not usually kept in pens, cages or the house; instead they are allowed to roam free in the home area and have established a territory of roughly 4-5 properties (20 acres in this case) on all sides. This benefits the neighbors on Meadow Creek Trail that they visit, as they are hunting for their daily meals of creepy crawlies, scorpions, mice and small snakes.

There is generally one dominant male in each flock. Once hatched, a surviving male hatchling will move on to find/start his own flock when he matures. Sometimes you will hear stories of a Peacock just showing up on property; it is quite possibly a young male looking to start his own flock.

The males lose their feathers in mid-summer with feathers falling off wherever he goes. His colorful feathers grow back over winter months and become the beautiful, impressive plumes he shows off in the spring to the ladies. Each year his feathers get longer, so you can tell a young male from an older one by the length of their tail. One of the most amazing things about them is they can actually fly short distances with those long tails!

Watching the Peacock open his large tail and strut around showing his beauty to all is quite the beautiful sight to see and fun to watch. There are several flocks of Peafowl in the “Back 40” to look and listen for. Peafowls can be very vocal, and they make very unusual sounds. One call sound like someone screaming “HELP”, which can be a little disconcerting at night.

Please watch out for Peafowls on the streets! The Peafowls are slow moving, large birds that do not know to get out of the way of vehicles.