#cristatus

[notesfromasmallworld]

As the peacock fly

I had wanted to take a photo of indian peacocks actually flying for years. The large and heavy birds with their train of feathers are able to fly, but often they prefer walking. Flying is hard work.

Not this one. He and his flock of peafowls where walking on the roofs of the buildings of the Lamido palace in Ngouandéré. Getting around meant flying. And I spent some quality time walking after them waiting for the jump and flight.

The local chieftain/king/Lamido in Nguandere had this old, classic symbol of power and wealth - peacocks wandering free in his private gardens.

They are not elegant flyers.

Royal symbol

The indian name for peafowl is Mayura, meaning killer of snakes. Understandably, a fashion statement that is actually useful probably help them being closely connected to culture and power.

Killing of snakes is also symbolic for cycling of time.

According to myths, the Mayura was created by feathers from Garuda, a highly important birddemigod in hinduism and buddhist culture.

Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, have peafowl as her symbol.

[coffeenuts]

[maureen2musings]

kimmo.paananen

[snototter]

A marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) basks on lava rock in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

by Anton

[fullfrontalbirds]

Australian Owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus)

© Kel Grunsell

[kedreeva]

Hiii! I visited Sri Lanka recently and saw many people peacocks! I tried to take pictures for you, but i pretty much failed😅

They have these signs that i think you might like though:

I love it!! I have one on my back door that reads beware of peacock... I think people think it's a joke, but Bug is in here!

DID YOU KNOW? Sri Lankan peafowl have their own locality name (it's treated as a subspecies by peafowl folks but not recognized as a subspecies... yet), Pavo cristatus singhalensis? They have a different look to them than typical Pavo cristatus. You can actually see it a little in your first pic; the barring is brighter, with paler brown between the black, giving them an almost black and white barring instead of black and brown. They also tend to have bigger white facial skin patches, brighter oranges on their primaries, and a bluer sheen to neck, black wing feathers, and train feathers than normal, often lacking or having a reduced red sheen on fresh feathers. They're really pretty birds! It's very cool you got to see them in person!

[seabeck]

Strange, rare mushroom. In both places they’ve been found locally there’s plenty of perfect logs for them to grow on nearby but either they’re picky or they struggle to populate other logs. Maybe they’re not good at competing other species. Who knows.

[inatungulates]

Indian wild pig Sus scrofa cristatus

Observed by roylesafaris, CC BY-NC

[hurglewurm]

peacock (pavo cristatus) i started drawing on my lunch break

[sugiichi]

Podiceps cristatus [カンムリカイツブリ,Great Crested Grebe]

カンムリカイツブリも近くに‼

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador

A marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) swimming in Tortuga Bay, part of the Galapagos archipelago. Greenpeace has called for the creation of a high seas marine protected zone under a new UN treaty to secure a much wider area around Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago

Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

Photo source 1

Photo source 2

Map source

[theskullindexcic]

We have all four living species of hyena represented on the Skull Index! Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) and striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) submitted by project director @birbbones.

[maureen2musings]

Birds of Spring

jukkarisikko

[ridiculousbirdfaces]

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

[fullfrontalbirds]

Australian Owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus)

© Kel Grunsell