The bird is (as far as I can tell) an albino peahen, and it is making a most peculiar noise, and whether London is in Ontario or the UK, (or indeed any of the fifteen Londons in the USA or eight in Canada, or one of the two in Australia, or the one in South Africa or even the one in Kiribati) it is not the sort of thing that one expects to see trundling around your garden whilst you are nursing a hangover and trying to make yourself a fried egg sandwich!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED BIRD...
This video was posted up on YouTube a year or so ago with the caption "Unidentified species of bird visiting me in my London backyard". The more cynical amongst you will, no doubt, be expecting another bad tempered Jon Downes rant about people not knowing anything about the natural world. Well you would be wrong.
The bird is (as far as I can tell) an albino peahen, and it is making a most peculiar noise, and whether London is in Ontario or the UK, (or indeed any of the fifteen Londons in the USA or eight in Canada, or one of the two in Australia, or the one in South Africa or even the one in Kiribati) it is not the sort of thing that one expects to see trundling around your garden whilst you are nursing a hangover and trying to make yourself a fried egg sandwich!
The bird is (as far as I can tell) an albino peahen, and it is making a most peculiar noise, and whether London is in Ontario or the UK, (or indeed any of the fifteen Londons in the USA or eight in Canada, or one of the two in Australia, or the one in South Africa or even the one in Kiribati) it is not the sort of thing that one expects to see trundling around your garden whilst you are nursing a hangover and trying to make yourself a fried egg sandwich!
Definitely a white peafowl.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that domestic peafowl come in a wide range of colors.
http://www.leggspeafowl.com/peafowlcolors.htm
We have two species of Asiatic peafowl in captivity- the Indian or blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and the Green peafowl (Pavo muticus). The Indian is more common in both captivity and the wild, but the Southeast Asian Green species is considered vulnerable in the wild.
The two species hybridize in captivity and in those areas where there are wild Green peafowl and feral Indian peafowl. As a result, hybridization between the two species could be a major problem for conserving the Green peafowl. The pure Green peafowl is suspected to be rare in captivity, and most captive birds with the Green phenotype are probably hybrids.
Now, here's something that someone of your discipline might be more interested in. Science was unaware that there was a third species of peafowl living in the Congo River Basin. The Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis), as it is known, was only cataloged in 1936.
It is considered the "missing link" between peafowl and Guinea fowl, for it lacks the long "train" of tail feathers that the other peafowl have. Peafowl and Guinea fowl can hybridize.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Guinea-hybrids.jpg (Guinea fowl-Pea fowl hybrid is on the right. Peafowl-domestic fowl hybrid is on the left.)
I am a bit of a Galliformes nerd. I really enjoy the blogs and the videos.