All printables
Indian Peafowl — printable fact sheet
Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.
Creature Atlas
Animal Fact Sheet
Name: ____________________
Date: ____________________
Indian Peafowl
Pavo cristatus
Pavo cristatus wears the most famous ornament in biology, and the first thing to get right is that it is not a tail. The "train" is made of about 150 to 200 enormously elongated upper tail coverts - back feathers - fanned and supported from behind by the much shorter true tail f…
Did you know?
- The eye-like spots on a peacock's tail, called ocelli, are used to attract females and can number over 100 on a single train.
- A displaying peacock shivers his train at about 25 times a second, producing an infrasonic pulse below human hearing that peahens can detect from a distance and that provokes a response even when they cannot see the bird. The eyespot barbules are angled slightly differently from the rest of the feather, so the eyes stay bright and saturated while the background shimmers - a built-in contrast effect. Wild peafowl roost high in trees at night and are strong, if reluctant, fliers despite the train.
What I learned
Draw the indian peafowl
© Creature Atlas · www.creatureatlas.com · Free for classroom & personal use
Want the whole set?
Get printable fact-sheet packs, coloring pages, and classroom worksheet bundles for dozens of animals — ready to download and print.
Browse printable packsGet a free printable each week
Join the newsletter for a new Creature of the Week + printables.