Green Peafowl

The Green Peafowl is a spectacular, large member of the pheasant family found across mainland Southeast Asia and historically Java. Unlike the familiar Indian Peafowl, both sexes of the Green Peafowl show striking iridescent plumage, though males are considerably more ornamented.

Males have a metallic green and bronze body covered in scale-like feathers, a blue-green neck, and an enormous train of upper tail coverts marked with iridescent blue-green "eye" ocelli, which is raised and fanned in courtship display. Females are smaller with shorter trains but share much of the male's iridescent green coloring, making them far showier than the drab brown hens of the Indian Peafowl.

Key field marks

• Tall, narrow, wire-like crest of upright feathers (versus the fan-shaped crest of the Indian Peafowl)
• Scaly green and bronze body plumage in both sexes
• Bare facial skin patched blue and yellow
• Long train with blue-green eye-spot ocelli in adult males

Similar species

• Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus): has a fan-shaped crest, blue neck and breast, and dull brown females; ranges do not naturally overlap (Indian Peafowl is native to South Asia).
• Female and immature Green Peafowl can be told from Indian Peafowl hens by their green, iridescent (not plain brown) plumage.

Habitat

Green Peafowl favor open forest near rivers and streams, dry deciduous and semi-evergreen forest, and grassland-forest mosaics where they can forage on the ground while roosting in tall trees at night.

Range

Historically distributed from northeastern India through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, southern China (Yunnan), and Java, but the species has been extirpated from much of this range.

Migration

Green Peafowl are largely non-migratory, though they may make local movements tied to water availability and food supply, especially in the dry season.

Behavior

Green Peafowl are wary and largely terrestrial, walking through forest and grassland in search of food and flying up into tall trees to roost communally at night.

Voice

The call is a loud, far-carrying series of trumpet-like or wailing notes, often given at dawn and dusk; males also produce a rattling sound from vibrating train feathers during display.

Feeding

They forage on the ground for seeds, grain, fruit, invertebrates, and small vertebrates such as frogs, lizards, and snakes.

Nesting and breeding

Males display their trains in a polygynous system, fanning and shivering the ocellated feathers to attract females. Nests are shallow ground scrapes, typically holding 3-6 eggs incubated solely by the female.