Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bird Photography: Peacock Mating Dance

When I was a kid, I used to see a lot of peafowl and their vivacious dances in my residential area. Sadly, peafowl are not that common in our cities anymore and one has to go to the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries to catch them in their full splendour.

Peacock Mating Dance at Yala National Park - 2 
This time around, I was at the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and was lucky to be treated to a lot of peacock mating dances. It looked like the monsoon had come early here. I would have spotted more than 50 peafowl here and all this within 3 hours of jeep safari. It is only after I got out of the Yala National Park did I find out that that the peafowl density here is the highest in Sri Lanka and much higher than India. So much for it being the national bird of India.

Peacock Mating Dance at Yala National Park - 1 
The peacock mating dances are always a very pretty sight. During this dance, the peacock opens up all its feathers, looks at the pea-hen and dances in such a way that all the feathers shake right from the top to bottom making for a thrilling experience. And at the same time, the peacock kind of jumps and runs behind the pea-hen with the same formation, but this time its feathers are tucked closer to its body.

Peacock Mating Dance - 5 
Below are some more pictures of the peacock mating dance. Hope you enjoy the show.

Peacock Mating Dance - 4 
Peacock Mating Dance - 3 
Peacock Mating Dance - 2 
Peacock Mating Dance - 1

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful pics!! Its a surprise indeed that they have a higher density of peacocks.... but of late, I have realised that i see more peacocks out in the fields than in national parks.... take morachi chincholi for instance or the road leadinf from paramakudi to ramanathapuram..... just two instances, but these places are teeming with peacocks!

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  2. nice.. I've seen them spreading wings in Karanji kere mysore...

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  3. I agree Anu! But, let's hope that it stays that way. Coz I know a lot of people who say peacock meat tastes very much like chicken and I teem with anger when I hear that. But, I believe there is quite an illegal activity happening round the country.

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  4. That is great. Good to know that they exist in good numbers in Karnataka and outside of its national parks.

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  5. जबरदस्त फ़ोटो

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  6. Thank you Sandeep! Happy to know that you liked it.

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