Lone Vermont peacock runs off with a flock of turkeys

[Annie-Xmas]

Just when you thought you’d heard it all:

Lone Vermont peacock runs off with a flock of turkeys

[Slash1972]

I so thought this would be a story of a peacock somehow kidnapping a flock of turkeys and then running off with them for probably nefarious purposes.

[jasg]

@Annie-Xmas

Just when you thought you’d heard it all:

Lone Vermont peacock runs off with a flock of turkeys

Funny, just read an article that brought up the same thing.

(Turkeys) Magnificent birds. A flock of them used to come out of the woods on the hill behind my house in Tennessee and seduce my peacocks into joining them in the wild. I had a half dozen or so peacocks over the years, and they were important to me, because they served as guards for the two hundred chickens we raised for their eggs, which we sold in a local market in Nashville called the Turnip Truck. Every time a hawk or a fox or coyote would show up, the peacocks would honk like crazy, and the chickens would disperse to safety under the chicken house or into the woods. One time, I saw four of the peacocks confront a marauding coyote, displaying their huge tails and honking and strutting toward him menacingly. The coyote ran off when I showed up with my shotgun, but the peacocks had him well in hand, and all the chickens survived.

The turkeys seduced away all our peacocks eventually, every last one of them. They joined the flocks of wild turkeys and disappeared into the woods. Occasionally, I’d get a call from one of the neighbors who spotted the peacocks amidst a flock of turkeys, pecking away somewhere on their land. I’d jump in the car and drive over and try to catch them, but it was ridiculous, a lost cause. They were obviously happier with the wild turkeys than they were guarding my chickens, so I gave up and let them go.

[Baker]

Crane watchers keep eye on Bob

The whooping crane mentioned in this article is possibly the same bird my sister and I saw, in Kansas, in early October of this year. It was a lone whooping crane with a big flock of sandhill cranes.

[Quartz]

Interesting. I get a 1020 error from Cloudfare when I try to access the link in the OP. I’m guessing they’re getting DDOSed by some scrote.

[Darren_Garrison]

Not to be confused with when some turkey ran off with A Flock of Seagulls.

[teela_brown]

There’s a country road near here that I often take when freeway traffic is backed up. A flock of turkeys is frequently to be seen next to that road, and among them is a lone peacock - or peahen, I should say. She must be a runaway from someone’s farm, just like the ones in this linked story.

The flock must feel comforting to them. Do wild peacocks form big flocks?

[puzzlegal]

The neighbor of one of my friends keeps peacocks, and their flock of peacocks has attracted a flock of wild turkeys, which now also hang out on their property. It’s pretty funny to drive by and see all the birds acting as a single flock, with the gorgeous peafowl and the butt-ugly turkeys all happily hanging out together.

I guess they are about the same size, and the benefits of flocking are the same benefits whether the other flock-members are your species, or just another bird of similar size and habits.

[Chronos]

And turkeys have ornamental display tails, too. To a female turkey, a peacock must look like the avian equivalent of Chris Hemsworth.

[cochrane]

@Darren_Garrison

Not to be confused with when some turkey ran off with A Flock of Seagulls.

As long as he didn’t try to take the gulls across the state line.

[Number]

Huh. I always thought it was funny that Spanish had the same word for turkey as for peacock. I guess there’s a reason for that after all.

[Darren_Garrison]

@cochrane

As long as he didn’t try to take the gulls across the state line.

Won’t somebody please think of the immortal porpoises?

[blondebear]

Next thing you know, Grackles will be co-habitating with Phoebes.

[Ike_Witt]

Are peafowl good to eat?

[ftg]

@Ike_Witt

Are peafowl good to eat?

Taste like chicken.

[puzzlegal]

@Ike_Witt

Are peafowl good to eat?

They used to be eaten. I think they have been replaced by turkey for culinary purposes.

[Dangerosa]

@Chronos

And turkeys have ornamental display tails, too. To a female turkey, a peacock must look like the avian equivalent of Chris Hemsworth.

Don’t foist your humanized standards of beauty on those turkeys. In the avian world, the turkeys might be the David Beckhams.

[Miss_Mapp]

@puzzlegal

They used to be eaten. I think they have been replaced by turkey for culinary purposes.

According to a couple of British TV shows I’ve seen in which they’ve eaten peacock (Time Team and Supersizers), the meat is very dry.