Indian peafowls are one of the most beautiful and attractive birds for me. since my childhood days, i am a lover of nature and a keen birdwatcher. the first thing i do when i go to my grandfather's house which is in a village nearby is to go to the jungle in search of these feathered beauties of indian jungles. they were in large numbers there when i was a child, but now there is hardly any forest cover at all. due to the lack of forest and food, they are becoming increasingly rare nowadays. indiscriminate hunting is also one of the most important reason for their disappearance.
They belong to the family galliformes, along with other game birds like jungle fowls. their scientific name is 'Pavo cristatus'. they are heavily build in their nature, so they can't fly fluently like other birds, but when situation demands, can fly with heavy flapping of wings for a few hundred yards.
Let me stop their scientific explanation about them and start sharing my own experience with these game birds. my first meeting with these birds was a somewhat fearsome experience. i was wandering inn searching them in the region around my grandfather's home. it was about 5 o clock in the afternoon. the sky was a little bit dark with clouds, but there was hardly any possibility of an imminent rainfall. so i went far away from home in search of peafowls. but my long journey into the jungle which lasted for more than an hour and covered an area of more than a square kilometre, went in wain as far from seeing a peacock, i could not even hear one. so with disappointment i staggered back to my home, only to see a peacock disappearing at the bend leading to the main road from grandfather's home. i was so happy and excited about it that i forgot everything else and went in search of that elusive bird. but long before i could reach that bend, the bird had disappeared somewhere. once again an hour of futile search for the bird was followed, resulting in only more disappointment in my mind for loosing an opportunity to see the bird once more, that too a bird which had wandered so close to the home. i staggered back to home with heavy steps, my heart filled with disappointment and it was then that i heard a heavy flapping of wings just above my head. having never heard such a tremendous din about my head so close in between such a dense jungle, my mind was filled with terror and i was about to bolt. it was then that i saw a heavenly beauty landing just a few feet before me and running away frantically. it was much more afraid of me than i was afraid of it!!
