Well, we didn't have turkey this Thanksgiving holiday, but we did spot another phasianid on our way home. There were 5 peacocks haphazardly crossing the road and creating a traffic jam at Casa de Fruta, a roadside attraction that has grown to monstrous proportions in the 35 years I've passed through here. Andy and I conferred that it's been about that long since we last saw peacocks regularly. They seem to have been in fashion back in the 1970's. Friends of my parents had them in their yard, and I have a vague recollection of my mom not knowing how to get one off the car so we could leave. While the name peacock is ostensibly gender specific, I had never given peafowl a second thought before and figured Nature ID is as good of an excuse as any to look them up. There are two other kinds of peafowl, the green peafowl (Pavo muticus) and the Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis). The Indian blue originates obviously from India, where it is the national bird, as well as from Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. They have been introduced around the world. In some places, feral populations have caused a nuisance with their calls and other issues with such a large bird.
