Rural Gardening: I have a new peacock!, 1 by kenboy

kenboy wrote:
All peafowl are either one of three species, India Blue, Green muticus or Congo. Congo being the rarest and closest to extension. There is only a few in the world and money alone will not get you one. I have a friend who was in charge of all Congo in the US and he sent me pictures, I have never seen one. Next comes the Green and there is three subspecies, Muticus muticus, Muticus imperator and Muticus spicifer, all are green and have no other colors or color patterns. There are nine colors in the India Blue and three color patterns. There is one color that originated in the Spalding. Spalding is a term given to the hybrid cross between the Blue and Greens.

The Pied Spalding that I have is a product of breeding a Java Green to an India Blue Pied. The offspring will be 1/2 Java and split to White or Pied. The split to White birds will have white wing feathers and the split to Pied will not. Breading them together get you some Pieds with 1/2 Java Green blood. These are bred back to the Green and the process begins all over again. To get a bird 15/16 Java and Pied color pattern takes about 25 to 30 years or more. Someone started this and I have taken it a bit further. I am working on going to 31/32 Java Green blood in the Pied and the White. The Java is a larger bird that the India Blue and has a tight crest with yellow cheeks. I am trying to get colors and pattern of the Blue, that look like the Green in other respects.

Pictured below is the Congo;