Bird Photography: Peacock Mating Dance
When I was a kid, I used to see a lot of peafowl and their vivacious dances in my residential area. Sadly, peafowl are not that common in our cities anymore and one has to go to the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries to catch them in their full splendour.
This time around, I was at the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and was lucky to be treated to a lot of peacock mating dances. It looked like the monsoon had come early here. I would have spotted more than 50 peafowl here and all this within 3 hours of jeep safari. It is only after I got out of the Yala National Park did I find out that that the peafowl density here is the highest in Sri Lanka and much higher than India. So much for it being the national bird of India.
The peacock mating dances are always a very pretty sight. During this dance, the peacock opens up all its feathers, looks at the pea-hen and dances in such a way that all the feathers shake right from the top to bottom making for a thrilling experience. And at the same time, the peacock kind of jumps and runs behind the pea-hen with the same formation, but this time its feathers are tucked closer to its body.
Below are some more pictures of the peacock mating dance. Hope you enjoy the show.
