Invitation To A Party Of Dancing Peacocks
Let the colors pervade to me, flood my whole being, bring the light back to my life! I now proclaim this the day of colorful living and just in case you feel like joining me in this colorful world I invite you to do just about the same. How about bringing some color into your life? Whenever we tend to do this we do it mainly because we happen to need more colors in our daily routine, colors that would somehow make us manage to see the light at the end of the tunnel as most of you would say. Have there been any periods in your life when you felt like your whole body screamed for colors and not only for this only but also for finesse, elegance, softness, sweet tastes, fine aromas and whatever else you thought made life better? For sure there have been such periods as they are in almost everyone’s life. Of course I put it all in a poetic manner but no matter what words one uses to talk about such things, this does not make them vanish away. Rather pessimistic for the middle of the week, don’t you think so? But let’s get rid of pessimism and let the joyful colors of the birds I am going to talk about pervade to us. You must have heard of it since there is no way their feathers could not have attracted your attention at some point.
And as I sometimes do not master the words in such a magnificent way (even in a writer’s world there are bad days and good days of course) I choose to start this whole portraying thing by quoting a poem carrying the name of these birds: “Peacock, peacock, your colors are fine, / That lovely, sea blue, I wish you were mine / Your beautiful colors look like a rainbow, / With wonderful colors of green, blue and yellow, / Your movement is beautiful, elegant and proud, / And the sound of your cry is so very loud, / Your eyes are magical and wonderful green / You really are a sight to be seen. “ I came across this poem while trying to discover the fascinating elements in the world of peacocks and as I happened to find it quite nice I could not keep it for myself only and I had to share it with you too.
If you happen to be a fan of such colors as blue green or blue then most surely you consider these birds to be unique. And indeed they are unique since they happen to be surrounded in some sort of a colorful aura, an aura that enlightens our lives as well when seeing them. Have you ever seen a peacock jazzing up its ‘train’ of feathers? Most surely the words describing such an image are: amazing, showy, beautiful and why not even interesting. And in case you ever believed that those feathers being elongated into what many resemble to a train are in fact the tail of this bird then most surely you were wrong, since in fact the real tail feathers are well hidden under that mass of colorful feathers and the real tail feathers are actually small and grey.
Special not only because of their color but also because if you tended to think that the word peacock is used to nominate both genders, female and males as well then evidences prove you are again mistaken. Much like in a case of cocks and hens these birds are distinguished by sex in the following way: a female is usually referred to as a peahen, whereas a male is the proud carrier of the name of peacock. So, next time you happen to come across them be sure you do not get them angry and mistake them for what they are not!
What about a parade in which peacocks will march in front of you, does this sound good enough for you? It would be quite a show I have to admit it! Which are the colors these birds display? When it comes to colors for sure peacocks display a whole myriad of them, including here radiant nuances of bright blue and green as well as those eye-shaped spots of blue, red and gold usually referred to as “ocelli”.
But since one needs to know something about its family as well I shall now share with you some facts. For example, did you know that peacocks are part of the pheasant family, a family called Phasianidae? Or did you know that there are neither more nor less than three subspecies of peafowl out there in the world? Well, there is the so called blue peafowl native to India and Sri Lanka, then there is the so called Congo peafowl which lives in the Congo River Basin in Africa and last but not least important the green peafowl which is native to Java and Myanmar. And of course there are the peacocks being caged in the park you happen to be taking long walks (as it is my case). The last part was meant to be a remark, a general one and should most surely be interpreted as such. I know this sounded very much like what TV people advice us to do “Stay from away from sugar, fat and anything harming to our bodies. Drink plenty of water…etc” or something like “This show is to be interpreted as a pamphlet”. Just meant to make you smile! Hope I succeeded!
But since I tend to think that peacocks too can make at times one smile I shall now continue with them. How about finding out where these colorful birds live? Most often they will be met in forested area or at times even in areas with not so much vegetation.
Talking about vegetation, the first thing that crossed my mind was related to the diet of peacocks. What do these birds include in their daily menu? Apart from plants and insects, they may as well have on their plate arachnids and amphibians as well. They may not sound as a delicacy to you but the situation is surely different in their case. Just imagine how yummy these plants, insects and all the rest can be! Want to get a bite of them yourself?
Enough with food! Let’s go back to color now and see if there are any other peacocks out there either than blue. Of course there are, what did you think? If you rather prefer green to blue then most surely you would be enchanted to discover the presence of these green peacocks which display golden green bodies and necks. I consider these birds to be the joy of any painter, any photograph who from time to time enjoys taking colorful pictures rather than black and white ones. It is true that each of these tones and shades has its uniqueness and beauty but the joy is even greater when catching a glimpse of this vivid, kaleidoscopic world, when tasting the real juiciness of life. I am no philosopher and no painter, I have to admit this and as such I only speak from my point of view. Yours may be different and I may embrace it as well if I happen to find your arguments convincing enough. After all isn’t this life also about accepting and embracing other’s points of view as well?
Just enough philosophy and this is why I shall now embark upon what I will call the philosophy of peacocks. Is there something like this? Perhaps only in poetry! But even so can you not deem anything romantic in peacocks?
Perhaps the white peacocks will come as a relief for all those being fed up with color. They are nevertheless amazing. When it comes to female peacocks, these ones do not have that train (this must be why women tend to look for such a train in real life), and their feathers are rather dull compared to the ones of the males, being colored in such colors as brown and green. Even so, both species the blue and the green ones have what many call a head crest. This must be the reason why at times the peacocks are envisaged as symbols of royalty. After all out there, there is a colorful crowned bird!
If it ever looked to you as if you were blinded by their shimmering colors then most surely the light had its role in this glowing. At times the colors being displayed by peacocks have been described as breathtakingly beautiful. How would you describe them?
Even though it may seem unreal to those of you who happened to see them in parks, when living in the wild these birds simply roost in the tops of the trees in order to save their lives and stay as far as possible from predators. In order to better defend themselves they may as well gather in groups and amazingly enough these groups are called parties. If it were for me to try and make a joke I’d say that there was no one there to ask them which is their party policy or for what they militate or if in their grouping there was such a great disorder last night and if as such they happen to have a serious hangover the next morning. Did you happen to ask them all these things? And if so, what did they answer to you?
Even though they may seem big to you and unlikely to fly, you would be perhaps amazed to find out that they do fly, even if for very short distances, and they do it very well as rumors say. They can live up to 50 years, sometimes 40 or even 20 years out there in the wild, as they stand at the mercy of such great predators as leopards and tigers. Poor them, you’d say! How do they manage to defend themselves? They do it mainly by using their feet which have been equipped with some rather large, sharp spurs. As such one should learn to stay away from them. No matter how nice looking they may be, they may as well prove to be quite territorial and at times pay this obsessive privacy need with their lives.
Besides their color what I happen to find amazing at these birds is the way they choose to communicate with each other. How do they do this? Well, they may choose either to do this visually or using sounds. And those having them near have said that they can be quite noisy, but even so beautiful. There were some crazy people out there who even compared the sounds they emitted to either the “meow” of cats in the case of peacocks or to the barking of dogs in the case of peahens. What do you think is there any resemblance?
Talking about sounds I shall not fail to mention the so called courtship ritual taking place in the case of these colorful birds. Usually when trying to impress a peahen the male will make use of its beautiful fan like plumage and its voice as well as he will most surely call out for her.
Quite an amazing show to watch since these feathers will be practically shaken liberating some rather vibrating sounds meant to impress the woman he likes. Quite passionate males, don’t you think so? And if you tended to think that things will stop here then most surely evidences show that it is much more complicated than this. The male executes then a rather complicated dance as he seems to be inspired by the rattling of its fan like feathers. Did you know that rumors go that females are rather attracted to the so called “eyes” on their tails? The more “eyes”…the merrier the peacock happens to be! It may be just a myth meant to make us irremediably fall in love with them as I also happened to read somewhere that in fact what attracts female peacocks to males are rather the calls he emits rather than the remarkable fan like, impressive tail.
When it comes to being polygamous, most surely most of the men reading this article will perhaps wish to be a peacock too. After all a harem of 2 to 5 peahens can do no harm to one, is this true gentlemen? Of course in your case we would be talking about better shaped “peahens”. Going back to the world of these birds I have to say that once the target was achieved and the mating part is done the hen will lay somewhere between 3 to 5 eggs. A good job, if you ask me, given the fact that their “husbands’ are not that faithful to them! Amazingly enough these chicks are able to get on their won in just a few hours and when being a week old they will manage to fly as well.
If you ever saw a peacock then most surely they managed to attract your attention a well. How could they not do this since they are embodiments of beauty, impressiveness, color and uniqueness? Of course the words seem just not to be enough at times and images can speak a thousand words at once.
But even so my weapon here is made up of words and I shall continue using them. As such what better way is there to talk about poetry in movements, I mean the dance of the peacocks if not by quoting a poem? The poem is entitled “Peacocks in rain” and was written by Hemu Gupta “Koyal singing plants and trees spreading their beauty, / as someone is busy in painting with all colors and brush divine, / nature shows its splendor / finishing its painting with peacocks dancing in rain / as bells in their feet of raindrops beat / crown on their head shines / feathers they move like their steps are followed by angels and hide / its painting of god / Rain gives canvas to paint with all art in the sight. “
What better way to end a journey into the world of colors if not by using an incursion into poetry? I dare say that peacocks in themselves are what many would call poetry: poetry in looks, poetry in movements as well.11
