#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]

[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.

[maureen2musings]

Birds of Spring

jukkarisikko

[fullfrontalbirds]

Australian Owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus)

© Kel Grunsell

[hurglewurm]

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

[inatungulates]

Indian wild pig Sus scrofa cristatus

Observed by roylesafaris, CC BY-NC

[sugiichi]

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

池に1羽だけいたカンムリカイツブリ。

[ridiculousbirdfaces]

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

[snototter]

A male great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in the UK

by Mike J Whitfield

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A female aardwolf (Proteles cristatus), photographed in South Africa’s Benfontein Nature Reserve. Sliwa first headed here in 1991 to do fieldwork on this species of hyena, then became fascinated by the black-footed cat.

Image by Alex Sliwa.

[helluvatimes]

The Butcher

A Lanius cristatus, also known as the Brown Shrike, taking up position in a saraca tree to await prey. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

The Latin name when translated means “butcher”, probably because of this shrike’s habit of impaling its prey on thorns while feeding.

The camera used here with a constant aperture of f/2.8 had been very helpful in my personal bird photography some years back. I like especially the option of recording raw up to the crop of 1200mm. The nice thing was, there wasn’t any need to crop in post for this image.

[birdstudies]

November 17, 2023 - Pūteketeke, Kāmana, or Australasian Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus australis) A subspecies of the Great Crested Grebe, these birds are found in lakes in parts of Australia and the South Island of New Zealand. They eat mostly fish as well as some aquatic invertebrates. Breeding between September and March, they perform elaborate courtship dances and build floating nests from sticks and water plants attached to branches or reeds. Females lay clutches of five to seven eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs, covering them with weeds when they aren’t incubating and carrying the chicks on their backs after they hatch. The New Zealand population declined to a low of around 200 birds in the 1980s due to introduced predators, habitat loss, and human disturbance from power boating and other recreational activities. Their numbers are currently increasing after conservation efforts.

[drafthearse]

Australian owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus). Mount Hope, New South Wales, Australia.

[run-bird-run]

Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)

© Angeline Mano M