Peacock, any of three species of resplendent birds of the pheasant family, Phasianidae (order Galliformes).
Strictly, the male is a peacock, and the female is a peahen; both are peafowl.
The two most-recognizable species of peafowl are the blue, or Indian, peacock (Pavo cristatus), of India and Sri Lanka, and the green, or Javanese, peacock (P. muticus), found from Myanmar (Burma) to Java. 
Natural history
In both species of Pavo, the male has a 90–130-cm (35–50-inch) body and 150-cm (60-inch) train of tail feathers that are coloured a brilliant metallic green. This train is mainly formed of the bird’s upper tail coverts, which are enormously elongated. Each feather is tipped with an iridescent eyespot that is ringed with blue and bronze.
In courtship displays, the cock elevates his tail, which lies under the train, thus elevating the train and bringing it forward. At the climax of this display, the tail feathers are vibrated, giving the feathers of the train a shimmering appearance and making a rustling sound.
In the wild, both species live in open lowland forests, flocking by day and roosting high in trees at night. During the breeding season, the male forms a harem of two to five hens, each of which lays four to eight whitish eggs in a depression in the ground.
The eggs are incubated by the peahen until they hatch some 28 days later. The chicks have all of their feathers when they emerge from their eggs and are capable of flight roughly one week after hatching.
Conservation status
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classifies the blue peafowl as a species of least concern.However, the green peacock, whose population declined significantly during the latter half of the 20th century because of overhunting and the destruction of large parts of its natural habitat, is classified by the IUCN as an endangered species.
The IUCN has classified the Congo peafowl, which has also experienced declines because of hunting and habitat loss, as a vulnerable species.
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