Free Range Peafowl Flying

[spectrumranch]

Alot of people always ask about how well peafowl can fly. I think they beleive with the long train (tail) that the peacocks would have a hard time flying. As anyone with free range peafowl knows they can fly very well.

If anyone else has photos of there birds flight ability, please post.

Here are a couple photos:

Earlier this week I opened up the door to our group pen of peafowl to free range. THere were 6 birds already free range and now another 74 from the pen. So far I think most have stayed home, I did see a Blue male about 1/2 mile up the road, but he was headed back home. Each time I do a head count of what I can see I come up with around 60. I think the others are just in the trees/ grass.

A lot of them have been going back into there barn to roost at night. I'm hoping the others will join the previous free rangers that roost in a large tree. It is cool to see a tree full of peafowl. I have another group of 8 to turn loose yet. All the spauldings will remain in their pens.


Randy

 

[Hoosiermomma]

Our peafowl pair has flown quite a distance. Most recently they have been flying from our shed to the roof of our house. I'm sure that's quite a site to see from passerby's. LOL I love the picture of your peacock in flight! Beautiful!

 

[Paganbird]

Wow... that flying pic is great!
Mine are too little to post anything to compare to that. They just fly up onto the computer hutch, or the saddle rack, or my shoulder.

 

[deerman]

Check out pics top of the UPA Forum. Nice pic of blue flying, plus pics of peachicks and peahens displaying.



http://upaforum.com/index.php?sid=068fc64cefdb02ba02777019d577ab88

 

[spectrumranch]

 

[Kev]

Oh yeah they fly very well. At my childhood house all peafowl were totally free range, not even a coop. One of my fondest memories is going out to the back after school to feed the birds.. the peafowl would come flying/gliding in from all directions.. the place was full of giant mature eucalyptus trees and hills so the peafowl were not able to just fly in a straight line.. it's an awesome sight to suddenly see a peahen or peacock gliding into sight from behind a hill or a big tree. Unfortunately no pictures.

I have a picture of blues flying up to a roost high in a pine tree however it was almost dark so the pictures came out really blurry.

Kat has excellent pictures of flying peas..

 

[peachick]

ohhh this is my kind of topic !!! I love taking photos of my Peas in flight! And you are correct Randy, people that see my pics often say "I didnt know peacocks could fly!".

I hope you enjoy these

 

[Kev]

Here's Kat!

I think the one with the peahen is one of my favorite pictures ever. The top one looks like he's soaring but I can tell he was just jumping off something..

Last one is way cool.. who knew headless peacocks still could fly?

But seriously, awesome pictures(as usual)!

 

[peachick]

LMAO Kevin!! Headless! yea, Im working on a new peafowl mutation

I think I'll have less screaming in the middle of the night. (wow... I set myself up on that didnt I?)

To be honest, they were jumping off of something in every photo. How else do ya stand ready with the camera and wait for a photo op?? LOL
When they are up on top of the roof, ya stand on the ground, aim the camera in the direction ya HOPE they will fly, call chick chick chick, and then start clicking

sometimes ya get lucky...

 

[Kev]

Not commenting on that first part...

That's a great action sequence shot! I very much appreciate the difficulty and the patience involved in getting shots like these. Plus camera with quick shutter speeds are quite the luxury.. (what camera did you use btw?)

I've stood for a hour waiting for a group of free range yearlings to fly up to their roost in the tree with the hopes of catching flight shots.. well.. they decided to hang out with me until it was DARK. Sheesh.

Looks like both you and Randy have very nice places..