Today's Bird- the Indian Peafowl

~~🦚🦚🦚 I've returned with my continuing avian series.

"The pride of the peacock is the glory of God." -William Blake

"She is a peacock in everything but beauty!" -Oscar Wilde

"Peacocks have the bright feathers. Fish have the long tails. Women have the mall." -Janette Rallison

________________🦅🕊~🦚 ~🕊️🦅

Crests atop their heads

iridescent 'eyes'

tails also called "trains" 🦚

Ostentatious meals

ancient Rome delicacies,

but taste like chicken

🦚

Fearless behavior

and aposematic displays

impress the females 🦚

Natural selection?

Secondary selection??

Darwin didn't know. 🤷

🦚🦚🦚🦚

________________Bolt ⚡

{⚡_flying🦚_⚡}

{⚡_strutting🦚_⚡}

{⚡_screaming for love !!! 💘💘💘⚡ }

{⚡_running away from love??? 💔❓⚡ }

{⚡ then preening to do it all over again!⚡ }

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

~ Herman Melville

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When the peacock has presented his back, the spectator will usually begin to walk around him to get a front view; but the peacock will continue to turn so that no front view is possible. The thing to do then is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn. When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns. -Flannery O'Connor

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The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Have you ever seen a white peacock? 👀

The poet Horace mocked the eating of peafowl. Peafowl eggs were equally valued by Romans. In the Satryicon, Gaius Petronius also ridiculed how the snobbish upper classes ate peafowl and their eggs.

From the 1864 The English and Australian Cookery Book, regarding occasions and preparation of the bird:

Instead of plucking this bird, take off the skin with the greatest care, so that the feathers do not get detached or broken. Stuff it with what you like, as truffles, mushrooms, livers of fowls, bacon, salt, spice, thyme, crumbs of bread, and a bay-leaf. Wrap the claws and head in several folds of cloth, and envelope the body in buttered paper. The head and claws, which project at the two ends, must be basted with water during the cooking, to preserve them, and especially the tuft. Before taking it off the spit, brown the bird by removing the paper. Garnish with lemon and flowers. If to come on the table cold, place the bird in a wooden trencher, in the middle of which is fixed a wooden skewer, which should penetrate the body of the bird, to keep it upright. Arrange the claws and feathers in a natural manner, and the tail like a fan, supported with wire. No ordinary cook can place a peacock on the table properly. This ceremony was reserved, in the times of chivalry, for the lady most distinguished for her beauty. She carried it, amidst inspiring music, and placed it, at the commencement of the banquet, before the master of the house. At a nuptial feast, the peacock was served by the maid of honour, and placed before the bride for her to consume.

😱

And NOW....

American broadcaster NBC adopted a peacock emblem ☝👇 when it began color broadcasts. Its first on-air appearance was 22 May 1956.

Turkeys are peacocks that have really let themselves go.

~Kristen Schaal

🌈

A peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo and wandered around the city. Either that or I just saw a pigeon on his way to a gay pride parade.

~Jimmy Fallon

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At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.

~Baltasar Gracian

THE END

Here's a group👇 of the most beautiful backyard bird-songs, in rapid-fire succession.