Whilst on holiday in a cottage in the middle of nowhere in Northumberland last year, we had daily visitors to the field beyond our garden. They were peafowl and appeared to be completely wild. The field belonged to the village sheep farmer, and had a couple of horses in it. The birds flew down from the trees to root about in the grass for food, sometimes as many as 10 of them. I wasn't aware there are any wild groups, and always imagined they were all "domesticated". Or were these birds escapees? Has anyone else witnessed this?
Cheers, Linda.
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Hi Sparrow
you are right thinking that these birds are domesticated. I also don't think they're escapees.
Peafowl like to roost in trees and will commonly go looking for a suitable one, often this is outside of the owner’s area.
They also tend to wander and when people get them, they often don’t realise there’s a process you need to go through to get them to stay in a particular area, although this can often be unsuccessful.
The chances are the sheep farmer will be the lawful owner of them or possibly someone else in the village you were staying in. Because of their nature, peafowl are not really suitable to be kept as pets in residential areas and are ideally suited to Country Houses, or rural areas with no close neighbours.
Peafowl are a non-indigenous species not covered by any UK wildlife protection laws, thus not classed as a wild bird in the UK. Most birds will have owners as they are held as domestic pets. As domesticated pets, they are also covered by the Protection of Animals Act 1911 with regard to cruelty.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 – Allowing birds to escape
Section 14 prohibits the release to the wild of animals "not ordinarily resident" or that are not regular visitors to Great Britain and other animals listed on Part I of Schedule 9. These provisions are designed to prevent the establishment of non-native species that may be detrimental to our native wildlife. Defra are the enforcing authority for this legislation, and can be contacted on 08459 33 55 77 or by email at helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Hope this helps Buzzard
Nature Is Amazing - Let Us Keep It That Way
I agree, definitely domesticated. Although peafowl wander around, if they go far they become disorientated and can't find their way home. We lost a peahen once, she turned up a few weeks later about 5 miles away looking very skinny - they'll try to eat anything but can't find enough good food in the wild. But she still had enough energy to lead the boys a merry dance trying to catch her!
Buzzard and LB ... thanks for the comments. I thought they must be domesticated but have no idea where they should have been. We were very isolated, with only the farm and a couple of cottages in the hamlet. It was a lovely sight to see over breakfast in the back garden each morning.