The green peafowl (Pavo muticus) (from Latin Pavo,
peafowl; muticus, Mute, docked or curtailed) is a large gall
form bird that is found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is
also known as the Java peafowl, but this term is properly used to describe
the nominate subspecies endemic to the island of Java. It is the closest
relative of the Indian peafowl or blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus),
which is mostly found on the Indian subcontinent.
Contents
Description
Unlike the related Indian peafowl, the sexes of green
peafowl are quite similar in appearance, especially in the field. Both sexes
have long upper tail coverts which cover the actual tail underneath. In the
male this extends up to two meters decorated with eyespots or ocelli while
in the female the coverts are green and much shorter just covering the tail.
Outside the breeding season, however, the male's train is moulted and it can be
difficult to distinguish the sexes unless they are observed up close. The neck
and breast feathers of both sexes are iridescent green and have a scaly
appearance. In the male, the scapulars, median and greater wing coverts
are blue while the lesser coverts are green and form a triangleon the
shoulder when the wing is closed. The secondaries are black and in some
subspecies the tertiaries are brown and/or barred with a faint pattern. The
female has blue lesser coverts and therefore lacks the "triangle" at
the wing shoulder. Overall the female has more coppery neck scales as well as
more barring on the back as well as the primaries. Both sexes have shafted
crests, and are long-legged, heavy-winged and long-tailed in silhouette. The
crest of the female has slightly wider plumes while those of the male are
thinner and taller. The facial skin is double striped with a white to light
blue and beside the ear is a yellow to orange crescent. The dark triangle below
the eye towards the eyebrow is bluish-green in the male and brown in the
female. Seen from a distance, they are generally dark coloured birds with pale vermillion or buff coloured primaries which
are quite visible in their peculiar flight which has been described as a true
flapping flight with little gliding that one associates with Galliform birds.
Green peafowl are generally more silent than Indian peafowl.
The male of some subspecies, especially imperator, have a loud call of ki-wao,
which is often repeated. The female has a loud aow-aa call with an
emphasis on the first syllable. The male may also make a similar call. The
males call from their roost sites at dawn and dusk.
Green peafowl are large birds, amongst the largest living
galliforms in terms of overall size, though rather lighter-bodied than the wild
turkey, and perhaps the longest extant, wild bird in total length. The male is
1.8–3 m (5.9–9.8 ft) in total length but this includes its tail
covert (or "train") which itself measures 1.4–1.6 m
(4.6–5.2 ft). The tail coverts are even longer than those of the male Indian
peafowl but are shorter than those of the arguses. The adult female
is around half the total length of the breeding male at 1–1.1 m
(3.3–3.6 ft) in length. It has a relatively large wingspan that averages
around 1.2 m (3.9 ft) and can reach 1.6 m (5.2 ft) in big
males. The green peafowl is capable of sustained flight and is often observed
on wing.
