A Splash of Color for Easter

Happy Easter everyone! This is coming to you a little early, but we are still on the road and we have learned there is no guarantee of connectivity wherever we end up for the night. Rather than risk it, I wanted to get this out while we still had the ability to publish. Our spring migration is quickly coming to a close as we are on our return trip from the southwest. Currently stopped in Oklahoma, but we have to make it to St. Louis by Sunday so the boys can compete at the Poodle Agility Nationals starting Monday – they are NOT looking forward to getting all groomed and fluffed up to compete as they are looking a bit grizzly from all the travel – same goes for us ha. So far this has been a very productive start of the year birding wise as I’ve pulled within 10 birds of eclipsing my record count of 340 back in 2023 (link here). Barring another bad injury, that should be easily attainable, especially since the migration is just getting rolling back in the Midwest. Of special note, I’ve managed to add 37 new lifers since January, so plenty of fodder for future posts! Today’s featured feathered friend is not one of those and in fact, not one that I am able to include in my annual count.

Quite the splash of color to celebrate the Easter holiday. Hit the jump to see more shots of this exquisite foreign species.

Note, I usually go with a Bunny series for our Easter post in tribute to the traditional “commercial” icon of the holiday. Looks like I missed last year…and year before, but definitely brought out the Bunnies back in 2022 (link here). Couldn’t find any cotton-tailed entries in a quick look through my backlog, but thought this Easter egg equivalent in the birding world would do the trick.

As noted earlier, the American Birding Association does not consider the Indian Peafowl to be native to the US and thus not countable in any annual or life list. To be honest, Ron and I are not necessarily bound by all the rules related to the official ABA species requirements. There are a few “escapee” designated species we have agreed to count such as the Muscovy Duck, Graylag Goose and Yellow-Headed Amazon that have developed into a self-maintainable species in the wild albeit in more restrictive regions. The Indian Peafowl has not really got to that point and pretty much considered an ornamental bird mostly found in botanical gardens, fancy estates and such.

That doesn’t mean we don’t jump at the chance to photograph these truly splendid birds. The Peafowl also holds a very elite status in Linda’s eyes as it is one of the relatively few birds that Linda will take the effort to photograph. Her “If it ain’t purdy, I ain’t wasting my time” mantra is a direct snub at all those little brown jobbers out there that drive the “real” birders crazy.

There are a few places on our annual travels that we get a chance to see these beautiful birds. One of these is in Las Vegas at a place called Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs in Las Vegas, NV (link here). This happens to be a very nice park we try to get to at least once on each of our Vegas stays. It tends to have easy access to a number of birds that are sought after in that region like the Juniper Titmouse (link here). It also usually has 4 to 6 Peafowls roaming the grounds to keep your spouse busy while you hunt for the drabbier species. This park does have a $6 daily entry fee or annual pass options.

The other location happens to be where this series of shots was taken and also what sparked the idea to go with the Peafowl for this Easter post. This location has a religious theme to it that provided a perfect backdrop for the holiday. That location is the Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David, Arizona. We have dog club friends that moved out to Benson, AZ and we try to visit them whenever we make it out there. The monastery is around 15 minutes south of them and always a fun place to visit and bird.

This monastery has a large number of Indian Peafowls that are very acclimated to visitors. On our visit last year I counted over 14 of them – this year there seemed to be less (maybe 8 or so). Not sure if that decline was due to loss or they were hanging out in the air conditioning as it was awfully hot that day. These birds are very hardy and known to live in captivity for up to 23 years so my money is on the latter.

I guess I should clear up some confusion for the non-birders out there. The Indian Peafowl species is commonly referred to as Peacocks. That is the name I had been accustomed to until I went to report my first sighting on eBird many years ago and could not find it on their submission list. Eventually figured out that the term Peacock actually refers to the male of the Peafowl species and the females are referred to as Peahens. Somewhere along the line the gender and species distinction all got lumped under the term Peacock. Just to round out the naming aspect, the there are two main Peafowl species, the Indian Peafowl which …wait for it.. wait for it… is native to the Indian subcontinent and the Green Peafowl that is native to southeast Asia and Indochina.

The green variety is listed as endangered, but the blue version here is not. According to Wikipedia (ugh), there were 100,000 in region in their 2002 count. I could not find an estimate for number of “captive” ones in the US – safe to say that it is far less than that number.

These Peafowl spend all their time walking around and basically fleecing anyone that takes a picture of them…oh wait, that may just be the sequined and pink feather adorned showgirls on the Vegas strip. The ones “off-strip” tend to just walk around with smug looks on their faces clearly knowing they are the ones that get all the attention wherever they may roam. What I wasn’t aware of before visiting the monastery the first time is these birds are also at home in trees!

Similar to Turkeys, these heavy birds are not the most graceful in flight, but they can definitely get enough lift to reach safety in nearby trees. I remember looking up and seeing balls of color like fancy ornaments scattered about their trees. The shot above of just the tail feathers is one of my favorite shots – it took me a long time to find a clear shot of the tail with minimal limbs in the way and just when I thought I had it she spun on her heals and and slapped me…I mean..uh… it hopped to another branch.

I should also point out it is hard to get all of this bird into a single frame and better get your fstops dialed up (or technically lowered as it is one over) for all you big glass users out there if you want it all in focus. Also recommend finding some good light if you want all those colors to pop.

If you ever get the chance to visit this monastery, be sure and walk their small bird trail which takes you past some monster Cottonwoods – probably the largest I have ever seen in my life. That is a great place to find the Gila Woodpecker if you have not checked those off your list and definitely admire their giant cross along with other religious shrines. Oh, and do not forget to stop into the visitor center and get a bag of their candied onsite grown pecans – d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.

I’ll go ahead and leave it there. Hope you enjoyed a splash of color for Easter. Just to keep with tradition, I did find a more traditional image to leave you with.

Take care everyone.