Friday, April 06, 2007

Peafowl

The peafowl are the three type of bird in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are mainly notable for the male's profligate tail, a result of sexual selection, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen. In common English usage, however, "peacock" is used to mean any peafowl.

Overview
The typical Asiatic peafowl belonging to the genus Pavo contain the familiar Indian Peafowl, Pavo cristatus and the weakly known Dragonbirds or Green Peafowl Pavo muticus. Some biologists consider that there are at least five idiosyncratic and gravely scarce species of Green Peafowl while others classify them into a single species with three subspecies.

The Arakan Dragonbird Pavo spicifer was once inhabitant to Northern Western Myanmar, Southern Tibet and Assam. The Indo-Chinese or Siamese Dragonbird Pavo imperator was once inhabitant to South East Myanmar and Thailand. The Annametic Dragonbird Pavo annamensis occupied the broadlieaf evergreen forests of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Southern Yunnan China.
The Javanese Green Peafowl, Pavo javanensis is inhabitant only to the island of Java. The destroyed Malay or Pahang Peafowl Pavo muticus was thought by early naturalists to least the Pliocene rules out an opening by humans. Northern Yunnan is the home of one of the most interesting forms of Green Peafowl. The Yunnan Dragonbird, Pavo yunnanensis is most individual.

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