Green peafowl

The green peafowl (Pavo muticus) is a peafowl species native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and Indochina. It is the national bird of Myanmar. Formerly common throughout Southeast Asia, only a few isolated populations survive in Cambodia and adjacent areas of Vietnam. It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2009. This is primarily due to widespread deforestation, agriculture and loss of suitable habitat, severely fragmenting populations and contributing to an overall decline in numbers. The green peafowl is in demand for private and home aviculture and threatened by the pet trade, feather collectors and hunters for meat and targeted.

The green peafowl is a large bird in terms of overall size. The male is 1.8–3 m (5 ft 11 in – 9 ft 10 in) in total length, including its train, which measures 1.4–1.6 m (4 ft 7 in – 5 ft 3 in); the adult female is around half the total length of the breeding male at 1–1.1 m (3 ft 3 in – 3 ft 7 in) in length. It has a relatively large wingspan that averages around 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) and can reach 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) in big males. The green peafowl is capable of sustained (albeit energy-intensive) flight and is often observed on the wing.

Green peafowl males vocalize at their roost sites at dawn and dusk with a loud often repeated ki-wao. The female vocalizes with an equally loud "AOw-aa" call, with an emphasis on the first syllable. The males may also make a similar sound to the females.

The green peafowl has long upper-tail covert feathers. In the male, this extends up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and is adorned with eyespots; in the female, the coverts are green and much shorter, just covering the tail. Outside of the breeding season, however, the male's tail coverts (or train) is moulted; distinguishing the sexes during this period can be difficult unless they are observed quite up close. The neck and breast feathers (of both sexes) are highly iridescent green and resemble Chinese dragon scales. In the male, the scapular, median, and greater wing coverts are blue; the lesser coverts are green and form a triangle of scaly shoulder feathers (when the wing is closed). The secondaries are black and, in some subspecies, the tertials are brown and/or barred with a faint pattern. The female has blue lesser coverts, and lacks the triangle at the wing-shoulder. Females also have neck scales fringed with copper, as well as more barring on the back, the primaries and alula. Both sexes have crest feathers, are long-legged, heavy-winged, and long-tailed in silhouette. The crest of the female has slightly wider plumes, while those of the male are thinner but taller. The facial skin is double-striped with a whitish-blue; beside the ear is a yellow-orange crescent. The dark triangle below the eye (towards the eyebrow) is bluish-green in the male, and brown in the female. Seen from a distance, they are generally dark-coloured birds with pale vermilion- or buff-coloured primaries, which are quite visible in their peculiar flight; this action has been described as a true "flapping" flight, lacking the gliding that one associates with many birds.