INDIAN PEAFOWL : Pavo cristatus R Village hen+: Male c. 92-122 cm without train in full plumage; Female 86 cm. Hen also crested like cock but smaller, mottled brown with some metallic green on lower neck.  No train.  Moist- and- dry –deciduous forest, cultivation and precincts of villages . Subcontinent east of the Indus, up to c. 1800 m; Sri Lanka.  Introduced in Sind and Andaman Is.

Local Names: MOR, MANJUR, MAYURA-HINDI; MAYUR-BENGALI; MUR(SIND); MOR MALE LANDOR—FEMALE—MAHARASHTRA;  MANJA MALE, MANIA-FEMALE—ORISSA;  MABJA-BHUTIA; MONGYOUNG-LEPCHA;  MOIRA-ASSAMEE;  WAHONG-MANIPUR; DODE- GAROMAYIL-MALAYALAM; MONARA-SINHALA; NEMALI-TELUGU;  NAVILU-KANNADA;  MOR-MALE, DHEL-FEMALE—GUJARAT.

Size:  Vulture. 
Field Characters:  The gorgeous oscillated ‘tail’  of the adult cock, 1 to 1.5 m long, is in reality the abnormally lengthened upper tail coverts.  Hen, also crested like cock but smaller;  mottled brown with some metallic green on lower neck, and lacking the ornamental train.  Parties or droves, in deciduous forest.  Also locally semi-domesticated about villages and cultivation, where protected by religious sentiment. 
Distribution:  Throughout the Indian Union, locally up to 1800m in the Himalayas; Sri Lanka; Bangladesh Replaced in Myanmar by the species P. muticus with a pointed crest. 
Habits:  Inhabits dense scrub and deciduous jungle—plain and foothill preferably in the neighborhood of rivers and streams.  Polygamous; usually parties of one cock with 4 to 5 hens, but seasonally of the sexes separately.  always excessively shy and alert.  slinks away through the undergrowth on its legs, and flies only when suddenly come upon, or to cross a ravine or open river bed.  roots at night in large trees. 
Food: Grain, vegetable shoots, insects, lizards, snakes, etc. 
Call: a loud harsh, screaming may-awe, and short gasping shrieks ka-ann repeated rapidly 6 to 8 times with a pumping action of a head and neck.  Cock displays before his bevy of hens erecting and fanning out his showy train, and strutting and posturing to the accompaniment of paroxysms of quivering. 
Nesting: Season- January to October.  Nest-a shallow scrape in the ground in a dense thicket, lined with sticks and leaves.  eggs- 3 to 5, gloosy pale cream or cafe-au-lait colour.