peacocks

[mooglet]

A strange question but why do peacocks just stay in the gounds of big houses? Why do they not just fly off?

[craft1948]

We have peacocks in a large park right in York city centre......they do wander off as they ocassionally cause the traffic to grind to a halt while they're shooed back into the park. I suppose they don't go far from their nesting enclosures.

[mooglet]

Do they just wander in the road or do they fly like other birds? I am daft, i just always wonered .

[Graham-W]

As far as I know, peafowl are strong flyers, so I suspect the ones in parks etc. will have had their wings clipped to prevent them flying. This involves cutting the flight feathers on one side so that they become imbalanced when they try to fly.

[craft1948]

Never seen them fly mooglet......well only a short distance very close to the ground. They usually just wander through the park gates and into the main shopping centre. If you live here you're used to them but the tourists wonder where on earth they've come from.

[Ice.Maiden]

Peacocks DO fly. In fact, they like to roost up in trees, out of the way of predators, but those kept in stately gardens have their wings clipped on one side to off-balance them. This discourages them from flying very far, although if both sides were done, the birds'd still be able to fly off with practice. They also like to be housed where there are plenty of insects and grubs to eat. Mature gardens provide this, so the birds'll stay close to a good food source.

[wildwood]

Although they can fly at short bursts, they are mainly a ground bird and will only fly to escape from a predator or to fly up to a tree branch to roost, pretty much as a pheasant does.
They stay around the area they are used to because that is where they feel safe and know the food is supplied. Doves have a similar habit.

[mooglet]

Thank you, some really good answers to my question.

[fredpuli47]

Nobody clipped the wings of the ones in this village They've been here for years. We think they and:/or their ancestors came here from a village two miles away;where there was a zoo which had peafowl They can fly adequately and have proved quite fond of perching on low roofs. However, they are not great travellers. Once they are happy in a place, they stay :As though to prove this, we caught and moved them from one end of the village to the other, because they were too noisy for the householders in the streets at the one end: The other end has fewer houses, mostly farmhouses. They settled just as readily there and haven't bothered to travel the length of the village to come back. In the wild they are junglefowl, generally prefer a terrestrial existence and have no need to go far for sustenance..