Indian peafowl

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The Indian peafowl is India's national bird. To court a female, the male fans out a train of feathers covered in eye-spots, about 1.5 m long, which he sheds and regrows every year.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Class: Birds
Lives in: Saurashtra, Gujarat, India
Diet: Eats both plants and meat (omnivore)
Weight: about 4.2 kg
Lifespan: up to about 20 years
Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN LC)
Habitat: forests, grasslands

Quick answers

Where does the Indian peafowl live?

It lives in forests, grasslands. On the globe you can find it near Saurashtra, Gujarat, India.

How big is the Indian peafowl?

It grows to about 4.2 kg.

What does the Indian peafowl eat?

Its diet: eats both plants and meat (omnivore).

How long does the Indian peafowl live?

It can live up to about 20 years.

Is the Indian peafowl endangered?

It is listed as Least Concern (IUCN LC).

The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large, bright bird from the Indian subcontinent. The male, called a peacock, has a blue head with a fan-shaped crest and a long train of feathers with colourful eyespots. The female, called a peahen, is mostly brown with a white face and a shiny green neck. Both sexes are often called 'peacocks' in everyday speech.

It is the national bird of India. It is listed as Least Concern, and has been introduced to many other parts of the world. It lives on the ground in open forests and farmland, eating berries and grains, and sometimes snakes, lizards and small rodents.

The famous train

The peacock's train is made of very long feathers that grow above the tail, not the tail itself. To impress a female, he raises the stiff feathers into a fan and shivers them. Scientists have argued for more than a century about why the train evolved. Charles Darwin found it a puzzle, and later explanations such as sexual selection and the 'handicap' idea are still debated.

Daily life

Peafowl forage in small groups on the ground and run into undergrowth rather than fly. They are loud, and their calls can warn others about a predator in the forest. At night they fly up into tall trees to roost. Despite his long train, a peacock can still fly. The bird has an important place in Hindu and Greek mythology.

Fun facts

The male's long 'train' is not its tail but greatly lengthened feathers growing from its back.
The 'tail' of a peacock is really long upper-tail feathers.
The peafowl is India's national bird.
A pale, all-white form called leucistic peafowl also exists.