Slipmidi.online

Blog

  • Pigeons

    Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They feed largely on plant matter, feeding on seeds (granivory), fruit (frugivory), and foliage (folivory).

    In colloquial English, the smaller species tend to be called “doves”, and the larger ones “pigeons”,[2] although the distinction is not consistent,[2] and there is no scientific separation between them.[3] Historically, the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation. The bird most commonly referred to as “pigeon” is the domestic pigeon, descendant of the wild rock dove, which is a common inhabitant of cities as the feral pigeon.

    Columbidae contains 51 genera divided into 353 species.[4] The family occurs worldwide, often in close proximity to humans, but the greatest diversity is in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. 118 species (34%) are at risk,[4] and 13 are extinct,[5] with the most famous examples being the dodo, a large, flightless, island bird, and the passenger pigeon, that once flocked in the billions.

    Etymology

    Pigeon is a French word that derives from the Latin pīpiō, for a ‘peeping’ chick,[6] while dove is an ultimately Germanic word, possibly referring to the bird’s diving flight.[7] The English dialectal word culver appears to derive from Latin columba.[6] A group of doves has sometimes been called a “dule”, taken from the French word deuil (‘mourning’).[8]

    Origin and evolution

    Columbiformes is one of the most diverse non-passerine clades of neoavians, and its origins are in the Cretaceous[9] and the result of a rapid diversification at the end of the K-Pg boundary.[10] Whole genome analyses have found Columbiformes is the sister clade to the clade Pteroclimesites a clade consisting the orders Pterocliformes (sandgrouses) and Mesitornithiformes (mesites).[11][12][13] The columbiform-pteroclimesitean clade, or Columbimorphae, monophyly has been supported from several studies.[11][12][14][15][16][17][18][19]

    Taxonomy and systematics

    See also: List of Columbidae genera and List of Columbidae species

    The name ‘Columbidae’ for the family was first used by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819.[20][21] However, Illiger in 1811 established an older name for the family group (“Columbini”) and would actually be the proper authority for Columbidae.[22]

    The interrelationships of columbids (between subfamilies) and the ergotaxonomy of them has been debated, with many different interpretations of how they should be classified. As many as five to six families, along with many subfamilies and tribes, have been used in the past including the family Raphidae for the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire.[23][24][25] A 2024 paper on the systematics and nomenclature of the dodo and the solitaire from Young and colleagues also provided an overview of columbid family-group nomina. They recommended recognizing three subfamilies: Columbinae (New World doves and quail-doves, and columbin doves), Claravinae (American ground-doves), and Raphinae (Old World doves and pigeons including the dodo and solitaire).[22] A 2025 paper on the molecular phylogenetic placement of the Cuban endemic blue-headed quail-dove from Oswald and colleagues found the species to be a sister group to Columbinae, as opposed to being a true columbine or a raphine as previous authors have suggested in the past. These authors recommended that the blue-headed quail-dove should be placed in fourth monotypic subfamily, Starnoenadinae.[26]

    These taxonomic issues are exacerbated by columbids not being well represented in the fossil record,[27] with no truly primitive forms having been found to date.[citation needed] The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits in France, but while it was long believed to be a pigeon,[28] it is now considered a sandgrouse.[29] Fragmentary remains of a probably “ptilinopine” Early Miocene pigeon were found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as Rupephaps;[29] “Columbina” prattae from roughly contemporary deposits of Florida is nowadays tentatively separated in Arenicolumba, but its distinction from Columbina/Scardafella and related genera needs to be more firmly established (e.g. by cladistic analysis).[30] Apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera.[31]

    List of genera

    Fossil species of uncertain placement:

    • Genus †Arenicolumba Steadman, 2008
    • Genus †Rupephaps Worthy, Hand, Worthy, Tennyson, & Scofield, 2009 (St. Bathans pigeon, Miocene of New Zealand)

    Subfamily Columbinae (typical pigeons and doves) Illiger, 1811

    Subfamily Starnoenadinae Bonaparte, 1855

    Subfamily Claravinae (American ground doves) Todd, 1913

    Subfamily Raphinae (Old World doves and pigeons) Oudemans, 1917 (1835)

    Description

    Anatomy and physiology

    A landing collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) displays the contour and flight feathers of its wings.

    Overall, the anatomy of Columbidae is characterized by short legs, short bills with a fleshy cere, and small heads on large, compact bodies.[32] Like some other birds, the Columbidae have no gall bladders.[33] Some medieval naturalists concluded they have no bile (gall), which in the medieval theory of the four humours explained the allegedly sweet disposition of doves.[34] In fact, however, they do have bile (as Aristotle had earlier realized), which is secreted directly into the gut.[35]

    The wings of most species are large, and have eleven primary feathers;[36] pigeons have strong wing muscles (wing muscles comprise 31–44% of their body weight[37]) and are among the strongest fliers of all birds.[36]

    In a series of experiments in 1975 by Dr. Mark B. Friedman, using doves, their characteristic head bobbing was shown to be due to their natural desire to keep their vision constant.[38] It was shown yet again in a 1978 experiment by Dr. Barrie J. Frost, in which pigeons were placed on treadmills; it was observed that they did not bob their heads, as their surroundings were constant.[39]

    Feathers

    Pigeon feather types, excluding down

    Columbidae have unique body feathers, with the shaft being generally broad, strong, and flattened, tapering to a fine point, abruptly.[36] In general, the aftershaft is absent; however, small ones on some tail and wing feathers may be present.[40] Body feathers have very dense, fluffy bases, are attached loosely into the skin, and drop out easily.[41] Possibly serving as a predator avoidance mechanism,[42] large numbers of feathers fall out in the attacker’s mouth if the bird is snatched, facilitating the bird’s escape. The plumage of the family is variable.[43]

    Granivorous species tend to have dull plumage, with a few exceptions, whereas the frugivorous species have brightly coloured plumage.[44] The genera Chalcophaps, Ptilinopus and Alectroenas include some of the most brightly coloured pigeons. Pigeons and doves may be sexually monochromatic or dichromatic.[45] In addition to bright colours, some pigeon species may have crests or other ornamentation.[46]

    Snow pigeons flying at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above sea level

    Flight

    Many Columbidae are excellent fliers due to the lift provided by their large wings, which results in low wing loading;[47] They are highly maneuverable in flight[48] and have a low aspect ratio due to the width of their wings, allowing for quick flight launches and ability to escape from predators, but at a high energy cost.[49] A few species are long-distance migrants, with some populations of the European turtle dove migrating in excess of 5,000 km between northern Europe in summer and tropical Africa in winter, and the Oriental turtle dove nearly as far in eastern Asia between eastern Siberia and southern China.

    Size

    Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variation in size, ranging in length from 15 to 75 centimetres (5.9 to 29.5 in), and in weight from 30 g (0.066 lb) to above 2,000 g (4.4 lb).[50] The largest extant species are the crowned pigeons of New Guinea,[51] which are nearly turkey-sized, with lengths of 66–79 cm (2.17–2.59 ft) and weights ranging 1.8–4 kg (4.0–8.8 lb).[52][53][54] One of the largest arboreal species, the Marquesan imperial pigeon with a length of 55 cm (22 in), currently battles extinction.[55][56] The extinct, flightless dodo is the largest columbid to have ever existed, with a height of about 62.6–75 cm (24.6–29.5 in), and a range of suggested weights from 10.2–27.8 kilograms (22–61 lb), although the higher estimates are thought to be based on overweight birds.[57][58][59][60]

    The least massive columbids belong to species in the genus Columbina; the common ground dove (Columbina passerina) and the plain-breasted ground dove (Columbina minuta) which are about the same size as a house sparrow, weighing a little above 22 g (0.78 oz).[44][61][62] The dwarf fruit dove, which may measure as little as 13 cm (5.1 in) long, has a marginally smaller total length than any other species from this family.[44]

    Distribution and habitat

    Pigeons and doves are distributed everywhere on Earth, having adapted to most terrestrial habitats available on the planet, except for the driest areas of the Sahara Desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands, and the high Arctic.[50] They have colonised most of the world’s oceanic islands, reaching eastern Polynesia and the Chatham Islands in the Pacific, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean.

    Columbid species may be arboreal, terrestrial, or semi-terrestrial. They inhabit savanna, grassland, shrubland, desert, temperate woodland and forest, tropical rainforests, mangrove forest, and even the barren sands and gravels of atolls.[63]

    Some species have large natural ranges. The eared dove ranges across the entirety of South America from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego,[64] the Eurasian collared dove has a massive (if discontinuous) distribution from Britain across Europe, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and China,[65] and the laughing dove across most of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as India, Pakistan, and the Middle East.[66]

    When including human-mediated introductions, the largest range of any species is that of the rock dove, also known as the common pigeon.[67] This species had a large natural distribution from Britain and Ireland to northern Africa, across Europe, Arabia, Central Asia, India, the Himalayas and up into China and Mongolia.[67] The range of the species increased dramatically upon domestication, as the species went feral in cities around the world.[67] The common pigeon is currently resident across most of North America, and has established itself in cities and urban areas in South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.[67] A 2020 study found that the east coast of the United States includes two pigeon genetic megacities, in New York and Boston, and observes that the birds do not mix together.[68]

    As well as the rock dove, several other species of pigeon have become established outside of their natural range after escaping captivity, and other species have increased their natural ranges due to habitat changes caused by human activity.[44]

    Other species of Columbidae have tiny, restricted distributions, usually seen on small islands, such as the whistling dove, which is endemic to the tiny Kadavu Island in Fiji,[69] the Caroline ground dove, restricted to two islands, Truk and Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands,[70] and the Grenada dove, which is only found on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean.[71]

    Some continental species also have tiny distributions, such as the black-banded fruit dove, which is restricted to a small area of the Arnhem Land of Australia,[72] the Somali pigeon, found only in a tiny area of northern Somalia,[73] and Moreno’s ground dove, endemic to the area around Salta and Tucuman in northern Argentina.[44]

    Behaviour

    Feeding

    White-bellied green pigeon (Treron sieboldii) feeding on fruit

    Seeds and fruit form the major component of the diets of pigeons and doves,[50][74] and the family can be loosely divided between seed-eating (granivorous) species, and fruit-and-mast-eating (frugivorous) species, though many species consume both.[75]

    The granivorous species typically feed on seed found on the ground, whereas the frugivorous species are more arboreal, tending to feed in trees.[75] The morphological adaptations used to distinguish between the two groups include granivores tending to having thick walls in their gizzards, intestines, and esophagi, with the frugivores evolved with thin walls,[50] and the fruit-eating species have short intestines, as opposed to the seed eaters having longer intestines.[76] Frugivores are capable of clinging to branches and even hang upside down to reach fruit.[44][75]

    In addition to fruit and seeds, a number of other food items are taken by many species. Some, particularly the ground doves and quail-doves, eat a large number of prey items such as insects and worms.[75] One species, the atoll fruit dove, is specialised in taking insect and reptile prey.[75] Snails, moths, and other insects are taken by white-crowned pigeons, orange fruit doves, and ruddy ground doves.[44] Flowers are also taken by some species.[4]

    Urban feral pigeons, descendants of domestic rock doves (Columbia livia), reside in urban environments, disturbing their natural feeding habits. They depend on human activities and interactions to obtain food, causing them to forage for spilled food or food provided by humans.[77]

    Spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis) on its nest, with one unhatched egg and one hatchling

    Reproduction

    Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests, often using sticks, other vegetable matter, and other debris, which may be placed on trees, on rocky ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. The female may either build the nest, with material gathered by the male, or the male builds the nest by himself. A few species nest colonially, others nest in aggregation.[4]

    Most lay a clutch of one or (usually) two white eggs at a time which take 11-30 days to hatch (larger species have longer incubation times). Both parents care for the young; unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce “crop milk” to feed their young. This fluid is secreted by a sloughing of epithelial cells from the lining of the crop.[4]

    Unfledged baby doves and pigeons are called squabs and are generally able to fly by five weeks old. These fledglings, with their immature squeaking voices, are called squeakers once they are weaned,[78] and leave the nest after 25–32 days.

    Status and conservation

    While many species of pigeons and doves have benefited from human activities and have increased their ranges, many other species have declined in numbers and some have become threatened or even succumbed to extinction.[79] Among the ten species to have become extinct since 1600 (the conventional date for estimating modern extinctions) are two of the most famous extinct species, the dodo and the passenger pigeon.[79][4]

    The passenger pigeon was exceptional for a number of reasons. In modern times, it is the only pigeon species that was not an island species to have become extinct[79] even though it was once the most numerous species of bird on Earth.[citation needed] Its former numbers are difficult to estimate, but one ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, estimated one flock he observed contained over two billion birds.[80] The decline of the species was abrupt; in 1871, a breeding colony was estimated to contain over a hundred million birds, yet the last individual in the species was dead by 1914.[81] Although habitat loss was a contributing factor, the species is thought to have been massively over-hunted, being used as food for slaves and, later, the poor, in the United States throughout the 19th century.[citation needed]

    The Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni) is extinct in the wild.

    The dodo, and its extinction, was more typical of the extinctions of pigeons in general. Like many species that colonise remote islands with few predators, it lost much of its predator avoidance behaviour, along with its ability to fly.[82] The arrival of people, along with a suite of other introduced species such as rats, pigs, and cats, quickly spelled the end for this species and many other island species that have become extinct.[82]

    118 columbid species are at risk (34% of the total), with 48 species NT, 40 VU, 18 EN, 11 CR, and 1 EW.[4] Most of these are tropical and live on islands. All of the species are threatened by introduced predators, habitat loss, hunting, or a combination of these factors.[82] In some cases, they may be extinct in the wild, as is the Socorro dove of Socorro Island, Mexico, last seen in the wild in 1972, driven to extinction by habitat loss and introduced feral cats.[83] In some areas, a lack of knowledge means the true status of a species is unknown (DD); the Negros fruit dove has not been seen since 1953,[84] and may or may not be extinct, and the Polynesian ground dove is classified as critically endangered, as whether it survives or not on remote islands in the far west of the Pacific Ocean is unknown.[85]

    Various conservation techniques are employed to prevent these extinctions, including laws and regulations to control hunting pressure, the establishment of protected areas to prevent further habitat loss, the establishment of captive populations for reintroduction back into the wild (ex situ conservation), and the translocation of individuals to suitable habitats to create additional populations.[82][86]

    Domestication

    Main article: Domestic pigeon

    The domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) is a descendant of the rock dove (Columba livia) that underwent domestication, with studies suggesting domestication as early as 10 thousand years ago. Domestic pigeons have long been a part of human culture; doves were important symbols of the goddesses Innana, Asherah, and Aphrodite, and revered by the early Christian, Islamic and Jewish religions. Domestication of pigeons led to significant use of homing pigeons for communication, including war pigeons, such as the 32 pigeons who were awarded the Dickin Medal for “brave service” to their country, in World War II.

    The ringneck dove is a smaller species of domestic columbid that was kept as a source of food. As a result of selection for tame individuals who would not escape their cages, they lack a survival instinct and cannot survive release.

  • Peafowl 

    Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus Pavo and one species of the closely related genus Afropavo within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are referred to as peahens.

    The two Asiatic species are the blue or Indian peafowl originally from the Indian subcontinent, and the green peafowl from Southeast Asia. The third peafowl species, the Congo peafowl, is native only to the Congo Basin. Male peafowl are known for their piercing calls and their extravagant plumage. The latter is especially prominent in the Asiatic species, which have an eye-spotted “tail” or “train” of covert feathers, which they display as part of a courtship ritual.

    The functions of the elaborate iridescent coloration and large “train” of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Charles Darwin suggested that they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. More recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his handicap principle that these features acted as honest signals of the males’ fitness, since less-fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.

    Description

    [edit]

    Peafowl eggs
    Peachick
    Head of adult peacock
    A female peafowl, or peahen, walking freely around a zoo

    Duration: 1 minute and 13 seconds.1:13Video analysis of the mechanisms behind the display

    The Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) has iridescent blue and green plumage, mostly metal-like blue and green. In both species, females are a little smaller than males in terms of weight and wingspan, but males are significantly longer due to the “tail”, also known as a “train”.[1] The peacock train consists not of tail quill feathers but highly elongated upper tail coverts. These feathers are marked with eyespots, best seen when a peacock fans his tail. All species have a crest atop the head. The Indian peahen has a mixture of dull grey, brown, and green in her plumage. The female also displays her plumage to ward off female competition or signal danger to her young.

    Male green peafowls (Pavo muticus) have green and bronze or gold plumage, and black wings with a sheen of blue. Unlike Indian peafowl, the green peahen is similar to the male, but has shorter upper tail coverts, a more coppery neck, and overall less iridescence. Both males and females have spurs.[2][page needed]

    The Congo peacock (Afropavo congensis) male does not display his covert feathers, but uses his actual tail feathers during courtship displays. These feathers are much shorter than those of the Indian and green species, and the ocelli are much less pronounced. Females of the Indian and African species are dull grey and/or brown.

    Chicks of both sexes in all the species are cryptically colored. They vary between yellow and tawny, usually with patches of darker brown or light tan and “dirty white” ivory.

    Mature peahens have been recorded as suddenly growing typically male peacock plumage and making male calls.[3] Research has suggested that changes in mature birds are due to a lack of estrogen from old or damaged ovaries, and that male plumage and calls are the default unless hormonally suppressed.[4]

    Iridescence and structural coloration

    [edit]

    Further information: Iridescence and Structural colouration

    As with many birds, vibrant iridescent plumage colors are not primarily pigments, but structural coloration. Optical interference of Bragg reflections, from regular, periodic nanostructures of the barbules (fiber-like components) of the feathers, produce the peacock’s colors.[5] Slight changes to the spacing of the barbules result in different colors. Brown feathers are a mixture of red and blue: one color is created by the periodic structure and the other is created by a Fabry–Pérot interference peak from reflections from the outer and inner boundaries. Color derived from physical structure rather than pigment can vary with viewing angle, causing iridescence.[6]

    Courtship

    [edit]

    Most commonly, during a courtship display, the visiting peahen will stop directly in front of the peacock, thus providing her with the ability to assess the male at 90° to the surface of the feather. Then, the male will turn and display his feathers about 45° to the right of the sun’s azimuth which allows the sunlight to accentuate the iridescence of his train. If the female chooses to interact with the male, he will then turn to face her and shiver his train so as to begin the mating process.[7]

    Evolution

    [edit]

    Sexual selection

    [edit]

    Charles Darwin suggested in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex that peafowl plumage may have evolved through sexual selection:

    Many female progenitors of the peacock must, during a long line of descent, have appreciated this superiority; for they have unconsciously, by the continued preference for the most beautiful males, rendered the peacock the most splendid of living birds.

    Aposematism and natural selection

    [edit]

    It has been suggested that a peacock’s train, loud call, and fearless behavior have been formed by natural selection (with or without sexual selection too), and served as an aposematic display to intimidate predators and rivals.[8][9] This hypothesis is designed to explain Takahashi’s observations that in Japan, neither reproductive success nor physical condition correlate with the train’s length, symmetry or number of eyespots.[10]

    Female choice

    [edit]

    See also: Mate choice

    Peacock (seen from behind) displaying to attract peahen in foreground

    Multiple hypotheses involving female choice have been posited. One hypothesis is that females choose mates with good genes. Males with more exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics, such as bigger, brighter peacock trains, tend to have better genes[example needed] in the peahen’s eyes.[11] These better genes directly benefit her offspring, as well as her fitness and reproductive success.

    Runaway selection is another hypothesis. In runaway sexual selection, linked genes in males and females code for sexually dimorphic traits in males, and preference for those traits in females.[12] The close spatial association of alleles[which?] for loci[which?] involved in the train in males, and for preference for more exuberant trains in females, on the chromosome (linkage disequilibrium) causes a positive feedback loop that exaggerates both the male traits and the female preferences.

    Another hypothesis is sensory bias, in which females have a preference for a trait in a non-mating context that becomes transferred to mating, such as Merle Jacobs’ food-courtship hypothesis, which suggests that peahens are attracted to peacocks for the resemblance of their eye spots to blue berries.[13]

    Multiple causalities for the evolution of female choice are also possible.

    The peacock’s train and iridescent plumage are perhaps the best-known examples of traits believed to have arisen through sexual selection, though with some controversy.[14] Male peafowl erect their trains to form a shimmering fan in their display for females. Marion Petrie tested whether or not these displays signalled a male’s genetic quality by studying a feral population of peafowl in Whipsnade Wildlife Park in southern England. The number of eyespots in the train predicted a male’s mating success. She was able to manipulate this success by cutting the eyespots off some of the males’ tails:[15] females lost interest in pruned males and became attracted to untrimmed ones. Males with fewer eyespots, thus having lower mating success, suffered from greater predation.[16] She allowed females to mate with males with differing numbers of eyespots, and reared the offspring in a communal incubator to control for differences in maternal care. Chicks fathered by more ornamented males weighed more than those fathered by less ornamented males, an attribute generally associated with better survival rate in birds. These chicks were released into the park and recaptured one year later. Those with heavily ornamented feathers were better able to avoid predators and survive in natural conditions.[17] Thus, Petrie’s work shows correlations between tail ornamentation, mating success, and increased survival ability in both the ornamented males and their offspring.

    A peacock in flight: Zahavi argued that the long train would be a handicap.

    Furthermore, peafowl and their sexual characteristics have been used in the discussion of the causes for sexual traits. Amotz Zahavi used the excessive tail plumes of male peafowls as evidence for his “handicap principle“.[18] Since these trains are likely to be deleterious to an individual’s survival (as their brilliance makes them more visible to predators and their length hinders escape from danger), Zahavi argued that only the fittest males could survive the handicap of a large train. Thus, a brilliant train serves as an honest indicator for females that these highly ornamented males are good at surviving for other reasons, so are preferable mates.[19] This theory may be contrasted with Ronald Fisher‘s hypothesis that male sexual traits are the result of initially arbitrary aesthetic selection by females.

    In contrast to Petrie’s findings, a seven-year Japanese study of free-ranging peafowl concluded that female peafowl do not select mates solely on the basis of their trains. Mariko Takahashi found no evidence that peahens preferred peacocks with more elaborate trains (such as with more eyespots), a more symmetrical arrangement, or a greater length.[10] Takahashi determined that the peacock’s train was not the universal target of female mate choice, showed little variance across male populations, and did not correlate with male physiological condition. Adeline Loyau and her colleagues responded that alternative and possibly central explanations for these results had been overlooked.[20] They concluded that female choice might indeed vary in different ecological conditions.

    Plumage colours as attractants

    [edit]

    Eyespot on a peacock’s train feather

    A peacock’s copulation success rate depends on the colours of his eyespots (ocelli) and the angle at which they are displayed. The angle at which the ocelli are displayed during courtship is more important in a peahen’s choice of males than train size or number of ocelli.[21] Peahens pay careful attention to the different parts of a peacock’s train during his display. The lower train is usually evaluated during close-up courtship, while the upper train is more of a long-distance attraction signal. Actions such as train rattling and wing shaking also kept the peahens’ attention.[22]

    Redundant signal hypothesis

    [edit]

    Although an intricate display catches a peahen’s attention, the redundant signal hypothesis also plays a crucial role in keeping this attention on the peacock’s display. The redundant signal hypothesis explains that whilst each signal that a male projects is about the same quality, the addition of multiple signals enhances the reliability of that mate. This idea also suggests that the success of multiple signalling is not only due to the repetitiveness of the signal, but also of multiple receivers of the signal. In the peacock species, males congregate a communal display during breeding season and the peahens observe. Peacocks first defend their territory through intra-sexual behaviour, defending their areas from intruders. They fight for areas within the congregation to display a strong front for the peahens. Central positions are usually taken by older, dominant males, which influences mating success. Certain morphological and behavioural traits come in to play during inter and intra-sexual selection, which include train length for territory acquisition and visual and vocal displays involved in mate choice by peahens.[23]

    Behaviour

    [edit]

    Peacock sitting

    Peafowl are forest birds that nest on the ground, but roost in trees. They are terrestrial feeders. All species of peafowl are believed to be polygamous. In common with other members of the Galliformes, the males possess metatarsal spurs or “thorns” on their legs used during intraspecific territorial fights with some other members of their kind.

    Pavo cristatus vocalisation

    Duration: 15 seconds.0:15

    Problems playing this file? See media help.

    In courtship, vocalisation stands to be a primary way for peacocks to attract peahens. Some studies suggest that the intricacy of the “song” produced by displaying peacocks proved to be impressive to peafowl. Singing in peacocks usually occurs just before, just after, or sometimes during copulation.[24]

    Diet

    [edit]

    A green peafowl (Pavo muticus)

    Peafowl are omnivores and mostly eat plants, flower petals, seed heads, insects and other arthropods, reptiles, and amphibians. Wild peafowl look for their food scratching around in leaf litter either early in the morning or at dusk. They retreat to the shade and security of the woods for the hottest portion of the day. These birds are not picky and will eat almost anything they can fit in their beak and digest. They actively hunt insects like ants, crickets and termites; millipedes; and other arthropods and small mammals.[25] Indian peafowl also eat small snakes.[26]

    Domesticated peafowl may also eat bread and cracked grain such as oats and corn, cheese, cooked rice and sometimes cat food. It has been noticed by keepers that peafowl enjoy protein-rich food including larvae that infest granaries, different kinds of meat and fruit, as well as vegetables including dark leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, beans, beets, and peas.[27]

    Cultural significance

    [edit]

    Indian peafowl

    [edit]

    The Hindu god Kartikeya with his wives on his peacock mount

    The peafowl is native to India[28] and significant in its culture.[29] In Hinduism, the Indian peacock is the mount of the god of war, Kartikeya, and the warrior goddess Kaumari, and is also depicted around the goddess Santoshi.[30] During a war with Asuras, Kartikeya split the demon king Surapadman in half. Out of respect for his adversary’s prowess in battle, the god converted the two halves into an integral part of himself. One half became a peacock serving as his mount, and the other a rooster adorning his flag. The peacock displays the divine shape of Omkara when it spreads its magnificent plumes into a full-blown circular form.[31] In the Tantric traditions of Hinduism the goddess Tvarita is depicted with peacock feathers.[32] A peacock feather also adorns the crest of the god Krishna.[33]

    Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan Empire, was born an orphan and raised by a family farming peacocks. According to the Buddhist tradition[which?], the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (mora in Pali) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as “Moriyas”, literally, “belonging to the place of peacocks”. According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara (“Moriya-city”), which was so called, because it was built with the “bricks coloured like peacocks’ necks”.[34] After conquering the Nanda Empire and defeating the Seleucid Empire, the Chandragupta dynasty reigned uncontested during its time. Its royal emblem remained the peacock until Emperor Ashoka changed it to a lion, as seen in the Lion Capital of Ashoka, as well in his edicts. The peacock continued to represent elegance and royalty in India during medieval times; for instance, the Mughal seat of power was called the Peacock Throne.

    The peacock is represented in both the Burmese and Sinhalese zodiacs. To the Sinhalese people, the peacock is the third animal of the zodiac of Sri Lanka.[35]

    Peacocks (often a symbol of pride and vanity) were believed[by whom?] to deliberately consume poisonous substances in order to become immune to them, as well as to make the colours of their resplendent plumage all the more vibrant – seeing as so many poisonous flora and fauna are so colourful due to aposematism, this idea appears to have merit. The Buddhist deity Mahamayuri is depicted seated on a peacock. Peacocks are seen supporting the throne of Amitabha, the ruby red sunset coloured archetypal Buddha of Infinite Light.

    India adopted the peacock as its national bird in 1963 and it is one of the national symbols of India.[36]

    Middle East

    [edit]

    Yazidism

    [edit]

    Tawûsî Melek (lit. ‘Peacock Angel’)[37][38][39][40] one of the central figures of the Yazidi religion, is symbolized with a peacock.[41][37] In Yazidi creation stories, before the creation of this world, God created seven Divine Beings, of whom Tawûsî Melek was appointed as the leader. God assigned all of the world’s affairs to these seven Divine Beings, also often referred to as the Seven Angels or heft sirr (“the Seven Mysteries”).[41][42][43][44]

    In Yazidism, the peacock is believed to represent the diversity of the world,[45] and the colourfulness of the peacock’s feathers is considered to represent of all the colours of nature. The feathers of the peacock also symbolize sun rays, from which come light, luminosity and brightness. The peacock opening the feathers of its tail in a circular shape symbolizes the sunrise.[46]

    Consequently, due to its holiness, Yazidis are not allowed to hunt and eat the peacock, ill-treat it or utter bad words about it. Images of the peacock are also found drawn around the sanctuary of Lalish and on other Yazidi shrines and holy sites, homes, as well as religious, social, cultural and academic centres.[46]

    Mandaeism

    [edit]

    In The Baptism of Hibil Ziwa, the Mandaean uthra and emanation Yushamin is described as a peacock.[47]

    Ancient Greece

    [edit]

    A peacock walking freely around a zoo

    Ancient Greeks believed that the flesh of peafowl did not decay after death,[citation needed] so it became a symbol of immortality. In Hellenistic imagery, the Greek goddess Hera‘s chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander’s tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as “the Persian bird”. When Alexander saw the birds in India, he was so amazed at their beauty that he threatened the severest penalties for any man who slew one.[48] Claudius Aelianus writes that there were peacocks in India, larger than anywhere else.[49]

    One myth states that Hera’s servant, the hundred-eyed Argus Panoptes, was instructed to guard the woman-turned-cow, Io. Hera had transformed Io into a cow after learning of Zeus‘s interest in her. Zeus had the messenger of the gods, Hermes, kill Argus through eternal sleep and free Io. According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the peacock’s tail.[50]

    Christianity

    [edit]

    The symbolism was adopted by early Christianity, thus many early Christian paintings and mosaics show the peacock.[51] The peacock is still used in the Easter season, especially in the east. The “eyes” in the peacock’s tail feathers can symbolise the all-seeing Christian God,[52] the Church,[53] or angelic wisdom.[54] The emblem of a pair of peacocks drinking from a vase is used as a symbol of the eucharist and the resurrection, as it represents the Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life.[55] The peacock can also symbolise the cosmos if one interprets its tail with its many “eyes” as the vault of heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and stars.[56] Due to the adoption by Augustine of the ancient idea that the peacock’s flesh did not decay, the bird was again associated with immortality.[53][55] In Christian iconography, two peacocks are often depicted either side of the Tree of Life.[57]

    The symbolic association of peacock feathers with the wings of angels led to the belief that the waving of such liturgical fans resulted in an automated emission of prayers. This affinity between peacocks’ and angels’ feathers was also expressed in other artistic media, including paintings of angels with peacock feather wings [58]

    Judaism

    [edit]

    Among Ashkenazi Jews, the golden peacock is a symbol for joy and creativity, with quills from the bird’s feathers being a metaphor for a writer’s inspiration.[59]

    Renaissance

    [edit]

    The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno, and on which European painters focused.[60]

    Contemporary

    [edit]

    In 1956, John J. Graham created an abstraction of an 11-feathered peacock logo for American broadcaster NBC. This brightly hued peacock was adopted due to the increase in colour programming. NBC’s first colour broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colourful peacock. The emblem made its first on-air appearance on 22 May 1956.[61] The current, six-feathered logo debuted on 12 May 1986.

    Breeding and colour variations

    [edit]

    This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
    Find sources: “spalding” – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
    A leucistic Indian peacock
    Japanese woodblock print of a white peacock, by Ohara Koson (小原 古邨), 1925–1936

    Hybrids between Indian peafowl and Green peafowl are called Spaldings, after the first person to successfully hybridise them, Keith Spalding.[citation needed] Spaldings with a high-green phenotype do much better in cold temperatures than the cold-intolerant green peafowl while still looking like their green parents. Plumage varies between individual spaldings, with some looking far more like green peafowl and some looking far more like blue peafowl, though most visually carry traits of both.

    In addition to the wild-type “blue” colouration, several hundred variations in colour and pattern are recognised as separate morphs of the Indian Blue among peafowl breeders. Pattern variations include solid-wing/black shoulder (the black and brown stripes on the wing are instead one solid colour), pied, white-eye (the ocelli in a male’s eye feathers have white spots instead of black), and silver pied (a mostly white bird with small patches of colour). Colour variations include white, purple, Buford bronze, opal, midnight, charcoal, jade, and taupe, as well as the sex-linked colours purple, cameo, peach, and Sonja’s Violeta. Additional colour and pattern variations are first approved by the United Peafowl Association to become officially recognised as a morph among breeders. Alternately-coloured peafowl are born differently coloured than wild-type peafowl, and though each colour is recognisable at hatch, their peachick plumage does not necessarily match their adult plumage.

    Occasionally, peafowl appear with white plumage. Although albino peafowl do exist,[citation needed] this is quite rare, and almost all white peafowl are not albinos; they have a genetic condition called leucism, which causes pigment cells to fail to migrate from the neural crest during development. Leucistic peafowl can produce pigment but not deposit the pigment to their feathers, resulting in a blue-grey eye colour and the complete lack of colouration in their plumage. Pied peafowl are affected by partial leucism, where only some pigment cells fail to migrate, resulting in birds that have colour but also have patches absent of all colour; they, too, have blue-grey eyes. By contrast, true albino peafowl would have a complete lack of melanin, resulting in irises that look red or pink. Leucistic peachicks are born yellow and become fully white as they mature.

    Black-shouldered Indian peafowl Pavo cristatus from private collection of Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), held at Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

    The black-shouldered or Japanned mutation was initially considered as a subspecies of the Indian peafowl (P. c. nigripennis) (or even a separate species (P. nigripennis))[62] and was a topic of some interest during Darwin’s time. Others had doubts about its taxonomic status, but the English naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) presented firm evidence for it being a variety under domestication, which treatment is now well established and accepted. It being a colour variation rather than a wild species was important for Darwin to prove, as otherwise it could undermine his theory of slow modification by natural selection in the wild.[63] It is, however, only a case of genetic variation within the population. In this mutation, the adult male is melanistic with black wings.

    Gastronomy

    [edit]

    A peacock served in full plumage (detail of the Allegory of Taste, Hearing and Touch by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1618)

    In ancient Rome, peafowl were served as a delicacy.[64] The dish was introduced there in approximately 35 B.C. The poet Horace ridiculed the eating of peafowl, saying they tasted like chicken. Peafowl eggs were also valued. Gaius Petronius in his Satyricon also mocked the ostentation and snobbery of eating peafowl and their eggs.

    During the Medieval period, various types of fowl were consumed as food, with the poorer populations (such as serfs) consuming more common birds, such as chicken. However, the more wealthy gentry were privileged to eat less usual foods, such as swan, and even peafowl were consumed. On a king’s table, a peacock would be for ostentatious display as much as for culinary consumption.[65]

    From the 1864 The English and Australian Cookery Book, regarding occasions and preparation of the bird:

    Instead of plucking this bird, take off the skin with the greatest care, so that the feathers do not get detached or broken. Stuff it with what you like, as truffles, mushrooms, livers of fowls, bacon, salt, spice, thyme, crumbs of bread, and a bay-leaf. Wrap the claws and head in several folds of cloth, and envelope the body in buttered paper. The head and claws, which project at the two ends, must be basted with water during the cooking, to preserve them, and especially the tuft. Before taking it off the spit, brown the bird by removing the paper. Garnish with lemon and flowers. If to come on the table cold, place the bird in a wooden trencher, in the middle of which is fixed a wooden skewer, which should penetrate the body of the bird, to keep it upright. Arrange the claws and feathers in a natural manner, and the tail like a fan, supported with wire. No ordinary cook can place a peacock on the table properly. This ceremony was reserved, in the times of chivalry, for the lady most distinguished for her beauty. She carried it, amidst inspiring music, and placed it, at the commencement of the banquet, before the master of the house. At a nuptial feast, the peacock was served by the maid of honour, and placed before the bride for her to consume.