Indian peacock perched on a tree stub

Photo: A peacock in the morning sun in Wasgamuwa National Park, Sri Lanka

The photo shows an Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) sitting on the dry branch of a tree and enjoying the morning sun in Wasgamuwa National Park in Sri Lanka.

As you can see, this is one of the best shots of a male peafowl that shows its real shape and beauty when sitting on a perch. You may take note of its tail (train) and compare its length with the rest of its body.

The Indian peafowl can be found in most regions of India, Sri Lanka and across South Asia as resident breeder, but in areas below an altitude of 1,800 meters from the sea level. They can be seen in forests, grasslands, cultivated areas and even around human habitations.

Apart from its original habitats, the peafowl has been introduced to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Reunion, South Africa, Suriname, United States, Uruguay, and many more countries.

Indian Peacock in Flight

Photo: The Indian Peacock captured on lens during flight

The Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus, is perhaps the only bird with such a long train of feathers with vibrant iridescent colors. Often mistaken for tail feathers, this long train is actually made up of around 200 upper tail coverts, growing above the usual tail feathers. While both peahens and peacocks have tail feathers, peahens do not have the trains. The train feathers have multicolor eyespots.

The iridescent feather colors are not due to color pigments, but they are resulting from optical interference reflections of nanostructures of the fiber-like components of feathers. The peacock raises its train feathers, spreads them like an elaborate evenly spread fan and quivers it, and performs what is commonly known as ‘the peacock dance’ during courtship.

A black swan (Cygnus atratus) and cygnet

Public Domain Photo: Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) and cygnet, photo by D.M. Vernon, taken in 2006

Black Swans are large water birds of the subgenus of Cygnus, mostly found in Australia, and later introduced in New Zealand, and some other countries. They are primarily black-feathered birds, with white flight feathers. The bill is normally bright red and legs and feet are grayish-black. Males are slightly larger than females, and cygnets (immature birds) are grayish-brown with pale-edged feathers. A fully grown black swan measures 110 cm to 142 cm (43-56 in) in length and weighs 4 to 9 kg (8 to -20 lbs) approximately with wing span of 1.6 to 2 meters.

Indian Peafowl, a white mutation Peacock

PD Photo: Indian Peafowl (Peacock), white mutation, photographed at Jardin des Plantes, Paris.

The photo shows a white mutant Indian Peafowl (Peacock) maintained by inbreeding in many parks worldwide such as this one at the Jardin des Plantes, the main botanical garden in France.

The Indian Peafowl or Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large brightly coloured pheasant native to South Asia, but introduced in many other parts of the world. The commonly used name for the bird is peacock for the male and peahen for the female bird. The Latin genus name Pavo and the Anglo-Saxon Pawe, from which the word Peacock is derived, are echoic in their origin and based on the usual call of the bird. The earliest usage of the word in written English is from around 1300 and the spelling variants include pecok, pokok, pokokke, poocok, pekok, pecokk, peacocke, peocock, pyckock, poucock, pocok, etc. The Greek word for Peacock was taos and was related to the Persian ‘tavus’, as in Takht-i-Tâvus for the famous Peacock Throne. The Hebrew words tuk/ tukkiyim have been derived from the Tamil word tokei but sometimes traced to the Egyptian word tekh.

Green Peafowl - Pavo muticus

PD Image: Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus), monograph (1872) of the Phasianidae or the family of the pheasants by Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915).

PD Photo: Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus imperator or Pavo imperator imperator) male

PD Photo: Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus) in the Taipei Zoo, Taiwan

The Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus) belongs to Galliformes, an order of birds containing Turkeys, Grouses, Chickens, Quails and Pheasants. They are known by names such as gamefowl, gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds or galliforms, peacock, peahen, wildfowl or simply fowl. These birds are found in most of Southeast Asia, and it is the closest relative of the Indian Peafowl or Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) found in the Indian subcontinent.

Males and females of Green Peafowl look almost similar, and it is quite difficult to distinguish their sexes during most part of the year when the males have no visible trains. However, the males of the subspecies imperator (P. m. imperator) and spicifer (P. m. spicifer) are overall bluish green.

Green Peafowl are one of the largest Galliforms in terms of overall length and wingspan but lighter than Wild Turkeys. The male Green Peafowl grows up to 3 meters/ 10 feet long, including its ‘train’ and weighs up to 5 kg/ 11 lbs. The female measures 1.1 meter/ 3.5 feet in length and weighs about 1.1 kg/ 2.4 lbs. Green Peafowl have large wingspans of about 1.2 meter/ 4 feet, and is a better flier capable of sustained flight, unlike Indian Peafowl.

The habitat of Green Peafowl is widely spread in Southeast Asia including India, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia (Java). They prefer forests (tropical and subtropical, evergreen and deciduous forests), and are found amongst bamboos, grasslands, savannas, scrubs and farmland edges. It nests on the ground laying 3 to 6 eggs.

Green Peafowl’s diet consists mainly of fruits, invertebrates, reptiles, frogs, and other small animals. Like the other members of its genus, the Green Peafowl can even hunt venomous snakes. Ticks and termites, flower petals, buds leaves and berries are their favorite foods. Their predators include large cats such as the Clouded Leopards, Leopards, Tigers, Jungle Cats and Fishing Cats. The Green Peafowl is an endangered species included in the IUCN Red List.

Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba coscoroba)

PD Image: Coscoroba Swan at the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, England.

The Coscoroba Swan (Binomial name: Coscoroba coscoroba) is a species of waterfowl found in South America. It is the smallest of swans (not a true swan), weighing about 4 kg/ 9 lbs. It belongs to the subfamily Anserinae in which ducks, swans and geese are classified. Coscoroba Swans have an average lifespan of twenty years.

The Coscoroba Swan’s beak, legs and feet are red and it has white plumage with black edges to the wing feathers, which are visible only when they are in flight. Its cygnet is of a patchy color with brown and gray hues.

The Coscoroba Swan breeds in South America from southern Chile and central Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. In winter it migrates to central Chile, northern Argentina, Uruguay and the south east Brazil.

The Coscoroba Swan’s habitat is swamps and lagoons with flourishing vegetation and grass. It feeds on grasses, small water plants, mussels and fishes. The female incubates the eggs, while the male guards the nest and protects the fledglings against predators.

Oriental Magpie Robin

PD photo: Female Oriental Magpie Robin found in India

Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) is a small bird, though earlier put under a different nomenclature, now considered an Old World flycatcher. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as pet birds/ cage birds. They are widely used in pet trade in many parts of Southeast Asia.

This Magpie Robin species is 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) long, including the long tail that is usually held cocked upright. It is similar in shape to the smaller European Robin. The male has black upperparts, head and throat apart from a white shoulder patch. The under parts and the sides of the long tail are white. Females are grayish black upper body and grayish white under parts; the females of this race are the palest.

They have local language names such as Kampung, Cerang, Polkichcha, dhyal or dhayal. The Magpie Robin (Doyel or Doel) is the National Bird of Bangladesh, and it is a widely used symbol in Bangladesh on currency notes and other objects of importance.

They are commonly found in many parts of tropical South and Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, (Copsychus ceylonensis), Pakistan, Burma (Copsychus musicus), Indonesia, Thailand, China, Singapore and Philippines.

Oriental Magpie Robin is found in open woodland, cultivated areas often close to human habitations. It is seen on the ground, bushes, branches of trees, and sings loudly from the top of trees or other perches during the breeding season. They are common birds in urban gardens as well as forests.

A number of other varieties of this bird have been named, including C. nesiotes, C. zacnecus, C. nesiarchus, C. masculus, C. pagiensis, C. javensis, C. problematicus, C. amoenus, C. adamsi, C. pluto, C. deuteronymus and C. mindanensis, though many are not well distinguishable from one another and the classification itself is disputed. There is more geographic variation in the plumage of females than in that of the males.

Oriental Magpie Robins breed mainly from January to July. Males are quite aggressive in the breeding season, and protect their nests and their territory. The mating signs of the male include puffing up the feathers, raising the bill, fanning the tail and strutting. They nest in tree hollows or niches in walls or building.The female is involved in most of the nest building. Four or five eggs are laid in intervals of 24 hours. The eggs are incubated by the female bird in 8 to 14 days.

The diet of Magpie Robins includes insects and other invertebrates, and they are known to eat insects, geckos, leeches, centipedes and fishes.

Brown Boobies, large seabirds

PD Photo: Adult Brown Booby on Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals (the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands).

PD Photo: Brown Boobies building a nest on the ground with sticks/ stems of creepers in Coral Sea islands, Australia.

PD Photo: Brown Boobies returning to nest at sunset, Coral Sea Islands, Australia. This bird is being TRACKED; enlarge the photo (CLICK) and see a wring-like numbered device on its leg.

The Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae, grows to about 76 centimeters / 2.5 feet in length. The Brown Boobies’ heads and upper bodies are black or dark brown and their bellies and the rest of the bodies are in contrasting white. Their beaks are very sharp with many jagged edges. They have short wings and long tapered tails. They have powerful webbed feet to help them in swimming and diving, just like a frogs limbs, but with three fingers in the front with web between them and a toe on the back.

Brown Boobies are mostly silent, but bird watchers have reported hearing sounds similar to grunting or quacking made by these birds. Brown Boobies dive deep in water, plunging into seawater at high speed.

They mainly eat small fishes, squids and leaping fish. They are agile fliers and use strong winds and high perches to assist their takeoffs, as they are clumsy in takeoffs and ladings.

Brown Booby pairs or couples are known to stay together for many seasons and they perform elaborate greeting rituals and dance-like movements. These birds nest in large colonies, laying two chalky blue eggs on the ground. They generally breed on islands and coastal plains in the pan-tropical areas of Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. They frequent the breeding grounds of the islands in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea islands.

A pair of white-throated kingfishers

The white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), also known as the white-breasted kingfisher or Smyrna kingfisher, is a tree kingfisher. The birds are widely distributed in Eurasia from Bulgaria, Turkey, South Asian countries to the Philippines. Though mostly found near water bodies, it can also be found away from water where it feeds on a wide range of prey including small reptiles, amphibians, crabs, small rodents and even other small birds. During the breeding season they call loudly in the mornings from prominent perches, and even the tops of buildings in urban areas.

Local names of the white-throated kingfisher include: Aspi Chidok (Baluchistan), Dalel (Sindhi), Dao Natu Gophu (Cachar), Kalkaliyo or Safedchati Kalkaliyo (Gujarati), Khandya (Marathi), Kilkila or Kourilla (Hindi), Lakmuka or Buchegadu (Telugu), Masroka (Assamese), Neela Machhrala (Himachal Pradesh), Pilihuduwa (Sinhalese), Ponman (Malayalam), Rajamatsi (Kannada), Sandabuk Machhranga (Bengali), Vichuli (Tamil), Wadda Machhera (Punjabi).

A Bald Eagle lands into its nest

Photo: Bald Eagle on Kodiak Island

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), the national bird and symbol of the United States of America since 1782, is a bird of prey found in North America. It is a sea eagle, also called erne or ern mostly referring to the white-tailed eagle, has two sub-species and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle. It is mostly found in Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. Bald eagles become sexually mature at four or five years of age, and when ready to breed, they often return to the area where they were born. It is believed that bald eagles mate for their entire life. If one bird of a pair dies or disappears, the other will choose a new mate. A pair that has repeatedly failed in breeding attempts may split and look for new mates. Its nest is the largest of any bird in North America. The nest is made of sticks and smaller twigs on tall trees or on rocky cliffs, usually near water bodies. These eagles produce one to three eggs per year, and both the male and female birds take turns for incubating the eggs.