Magnificent Mayur

Mayur is our splendid peacock. Mayur means peacock in Sanskrit. He is a magnificent specimen of an Indian Blue, a species originally of India and Sri Lanka.

He has been displaying his magnificence for weeks now, fanning his shimmering tail and making his distinctive and haunting call to attract Lady Katherine, our peahen who is largely oblivious to his charms.

The SSPCA re-homed him with us last spring. He had been living in the nearby town of West Calder and regularly disrupted traffic by displaying in the middle of the road! He had been reported to the SSPCA many times by the public but peacocks are notoriously difficult to catch and he evaded capture. He was living in a derelict house on a plot that was waiting for planning permission. It was when the builders moved in to develop the plot that Mayur was finally captured. He had to be re-homed (and quickly because stress can be fatal to birds) as his habitat was quite literally being demolished. When he arrived at The Lint Mill the SSPCA believed him to be about 5 years old.

At The Lint Mill Mayur roosts in the trees or on the roof of the house at night. During the day he parades around the place, sleeps in the shade on sunny days, admires himself in windows, a mirror and other shiny surfaces and sometimes raids the kitchen garden for young foliage!

He has a wonderful train of iridescent feathers. It is believed that the size of a peacock’s train is what makes him attractive to females, the theory being that if he can survive predators when dragging a huge train of feathers around, he must be pretty fit and therefore a good prospect as a mate.

When he displays Mayur shakes his feathers and to our human ears, it sounds like rustling grass in the wind. However, scientists have discovered that the shaking tail feathers also make noises too low-pitched for humans to hear and that his ‘infrasound’ is loud, between 70 and 108 decibels.

So mighty Mayur is as mysterious as he is beautiful and we love having him adorn the grounds at The Lint Mill.

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