User:Frankyboy5/Green Peafowl Species

This is a sub-userpage about the Green Peafowl. It is an article with unpublished data but this data will be published and added to the Green Peafowl article in the future. THIS IS NOT TO BE TAKEN AS AN ACTUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE.

On the left is the current classification of the Green Peafowl.

Malay or Pahang Dragonbird Pavo muticus
Habitat: Lowland, semi-deciduous dipterocarp forest and lowland rainforest

Distribution: Pahang Malaysia (muticus), Isthmus of Kra (malacense)

Taxonomy: Formerly P. m. muticus. Subspecies include Greater Malay Pahang (nominate muticus), Resplendent Kra or Lesser Pahang (malacensi or malacense).

Description
This bird is extinct in the wild. Some birds still exist in captivity. This is the brightest of the six species. Its neck is a brilliant golden green and its train and back plate is the color of roses. On its crown there is a very tall bluish crest.

This species was thought to be identical to the Javanese Dragonbird, but fossil records from the Pliocene epoch rules this out. Some claim that DNA tests showed that the two were identical, but I believe that this was false or misunderstood information from the World Pheasant Association UK. However, at least some pure Malaysian muticus were released in Malaysia.

The Pahang appears to be similar to Pavo annamensis. While there are still some significant differences such as the color of the back plate and the color of the irides, there is some possibility that muticus was actually a distinct species of annamensis.

Javanese Dragonbird Pavo javanensis
Habitat: Coastal rainforest and dry monsoon forest

Distribution: Confined to Java

Taxonomy: Formerly P. m. muticus. Subspecies include Ujung Kulon (nominate javanensis), Baluran (baluranensis).

Description
Another brilliantly coloured species, but its crown is not as blue as muticus. The Baluran race does have a very bright face, with a bold tangerine war stripe and blue loral axe, perhaps it is related to imperator. The nominate Ujung Kulon subspecies has less gold and more green feathers in the neck than the Baluran. Indeed, a population of Siamese imperators has been introduced to Baluran National Park.

Burmese Dragonbird or Spicifer Pavo spicifer
Habitat: Semi-evergreen rainforest; dry montaine forest, northern subtropical forest and elephant grass/bamboo forest

Distribution: Salween Drainage basin (spicifer and yangonensis), and Arakan Yomas in Myanmar (arakansis), India (arakansis), Thailand, Malaysia (spicifer).

Taxonomy: Formerly Pavo m. spicifer. Subspecies include Southern/Tennasirim/Shan Plateau (nominate  spicifer), Yangon (yangonensis), Salween (name unknown).

Description
Though it has a reputation for being a dull bird, it is a dazzling beauty. Its profile is skinnier and larger than other Green Peafowl.

The spicifer, along with muticus and maybe some javanensis, were reintroduced into Malaysia around 2006. This has been a controversial subject but from records of skins, it appears that spicifer was also native to Malaysia.

Arakan Dragonbird Pavo arakansis
Habitat:Moist evergreen, elephant grass and timber bamboo forest

Distribution:Greater Arakan Mountain range, Northern Salween River, Sikkim India

Description
Kermit recently said that this subspecies of the Spicifer is distinct to describe the ecological zones of each species.

Indo-Chinese Dragonbird or Imperator Pavo imperator
Habitat: Moist deciduous forest and tropical savannah

Distribution: Central and West Yunnan China (yunnanensis), Thailand (siamensis), Vietnam (cattiensis, tonkinensis and imperator), Laos (tonkinensis), Cambodia (siamensis)

Taxonomy: Formerly P. m. imperator. Subspecies include the Kunming (yunnanensis), Tonkin or Hue (tonkinensis), Siamese (siamensis), Southern Vietnamese (cattiensis), and nominate (imperator). Some genetic work suggests that some Thailand birds are genetically distinct.

Description
This species is native to southeast Myanmar and Thailand. It actually has more color than the Javan or the Pahang, but just has just has less iridescence and therefore looks duller. The Siamese race is similar to the Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus, and has the brightest facial pattern of any bird. The race cattiensis and siamensis have prominent barring on the hind wing. There once was a white color phase of coastal populations. The Tonkin or Hue subspecies, tonkinensis is the most bluish of all the imperator subspecies. Birds of this race can easily be confused with hybrids with the Indian Peafowl, but DNA evidence shows that this is not true. The Hue Imperator also has a shorter crest lined up with the loral axe, and virtually no hind wing barring.

The Kunming subspecies yunnanensis can often be confused with the Deqen Dragon's former name Pavo yunnanensis. There are at least three other forms of Dragonbirds in Yunnan. These are the Deqen P. antiqus, Greater Annamese P. a. annamensis, and the possible Shan/Tennasirim Spicifer (P. s. spicifer).

Annametic (or Annamese or Annamite) Dragonbird Pavo annamensis
Habitat: Broadleaf evergreen, mixed broadleaf and deciduous broadleaf forests

Distribution: South Yunnan China (annamensis), Annamite Range in Laos and Vietnam (annamensis and laotius), Cambodia (bokorensis), Uthai Thani in Thailand (uthaiensis)

Taxonomy: Formerly P. m. imperator. Subspecies include Greater or Yunnan (nominate annamensis), Laotian or Bolovan Plateau (laotius), Bokor or Western Cambodian (isanapuransis, angkorensi, or bokorensis), Vietnamese (vietnamensis), Uthai Thani (name unknown, but I am referring it as uthaiensis). This species is closely related to the Malay, and may even be conspecific.

Description
Although this species is duller than the Pahang or the Javanese, it has the beautiful golden and coppery sheen on its body similar to the Pahang, making almost as colorful as the Pahang. This species inhabits broadleaf evergreen and hill forests of western Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and southern Yunnan China, which are unusual habitats for Green Peafowl. The morphology of the bill, spur and crest are unique. The irides are unusually pale. Males exhibit dark blue black plates and blue crowns surmounted with well developed mounds and double crests. Females tend to exhibit intense golden and coppery colouration in the neck and upper breast. Both sexes show blue violet secondary wing coverts.

The WPA believes annamensis is a subspecies in the imperator group and treats all subspecies as geographical variations, or even subspecies inside subspecies. Foremost Green Peafowl expert Wolfgang Mennig who works for the WPA had also stated this.

Bokor Dragonbird Pavo bokorensis
Habitat: Broadleaf evergreen forest, submontane forest, and submontane grassland

Distribution: Cambodia

Taxonomy: Monotypic, though currently conspecific with annamensis.

Description
This is a fairly distinctive subspecies of annamensis, so I consider it to be distinct. It has been biogeographically isolated. However, if this species were split, that would lead to Lophura (nycthemera) annamensis engelbachii (Engelbach's black silver pheasant of Boloven Plateau) and Pavo annamensis laotius being split too. They had diverged long ago. It is unusual for Dragons because pairs make duet calls.

Deqen Dragonbird Pavo antiqus (formerly Pavo suparnaensi)
Habitat: Montane forests

Distribution: Endemic to Northern Yunnan, China (both subspecies)

Taxonomy: Formerly P. m. imperator. Subspecies include Deqen (deqenisis), Yunnan (nominate antiqus).

Description
An old living fossil, the Deqen Dragon has never been formally described by science. Though it is rather dull, it's the largest species of Green Peafowl alive. It is a majestic bird, with it's large size making it the largest galliform alive today. It was formerly known as the Yunnan Dragonbird Pavo yunnanensis, but was then renamed.

This bird was first described by Kermit in 2000. He described that the wings were more long and slender, the bill was like that of a Monal, and the bird seemed to have a very hind toe. It also apparently favored forest habitats.

Looking at the morphology, Kermit was sure that this was the closest relative of the extinct Pavo bravardi, the oldest form of Green Peafowl. This ultimately led him to rename the bird Pavo antiqus.

I believe that Pavo bravardi was a very big bird, with a dull green and bronze neck. It must have been huge, considering the size of the Yunnan bird.

Hainan Dragonbird Pavo hainanensis (speculative name)
Habitat: Unknown

Distribution: Was endemic to Hainan, now extinct

Taxonomy: Either a form of Imperator or a relative of the Pahang and Annamese

Extinct. It is said that it has mixed with the Tonkin Imperator (P. imperator tonkinensis) in captivity so some hybrids may still exist.

Taxonomic differences between the two sites
The MSN group's taxonomy is slightly outdated because:


 * P. muticus and P. javanensis have been split because fossil records rule out that the species were identical.


 * The Suparna Dragonbird Pavo suparnaensi has been renamed the Deqen Dragonbird P. antiqus.

Monogamous, not Polygynous
It all started when I found a photo of a male Spicifer displaying to what some think is a family unit.

I later asked Kermit if that Green and Congo Peafowl are monogamous. He said they as well as the arguses are monogamous. He told me that the females fight like crazy and the males are very tolerant of each other and seem to cooperate to defend their territories. The male is seen with the group of young, which are thought to be his harem, but are really his subadult young. Kermit says the exact opposite about captivity - that the male is polygamous. This is what he said:

Green Peafowl are monogamous in nature and like Congo Peafowl, Crested Argus and Great Argus, the adult male green peafowl adopts the duties of the of his mate while she is nesting. In other words, the male takes up the responsibilities of his own juvenile offspring while his mate incubates her eggs and rears her young chicks. Male peafowls defend the nest site and foraging territory that his mate and young chicks occupy against intruders and potential chick predators including monitor lizards, cobras and civets.

Though it is often described as polygamous this theory has never been quantified in the field. Many normally monogamous species are facultatively polygnous in captivity.

Note the close similarity between the sexes in the green peafowls. I have observed complex helper systems in each of the wild populations of green peafowl I have studied. In these systems the subadult males adopt the juvenile creche about the time the adult male takes up the duties of assisting his mate with her chicks of the year.

Many captive green peafowl males will brood their own chicks and allow them under their wings on the nocturnal roost and also during rain storms. This is also true for captive Great Argus. These events only occur when the species are kept in naturalistic environments and never or only very rarely in barren environments.

If you keep green peafowl and are interested in observing their reproductive behaviors and chick rearing behaviors, plant an aviary with corn and pumpkins and lock the peafowl out of it until the corn is about four and one half feet tall. Horizontal perches must be present for sentinel perching by the male. Potential nest sites should be built utilizing straw bales built into three walled structures resembling the elementary school kid's "fort". At least two potential nest sites should be built.

Turn the peafowl into the enclosure after the first two weeks of the breeding season. The pen they are held in would be adjacent to the nesting enclosure.

The Red Data Book also mentioned Kermit suggested this hypothesis in 2000.