Peafowl

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I came across an interesting hypothesis by biologist Amotz Zahavi regarding peacocks. The Darwinian understanding of the bright plummage of some male bird species is simple, it is pretty and signifies vitality to the female bird. Zahavi posits that rather than simply displaying beauty, brighter and larger plummage actually increases the birds susceptibility to predation. The plummage makes them easier to spot and in some instances slows down their movement. What a bird is actually signalling to a female is simple. “I am so strong, and good at evading predators that I can essentially live life on hard mode with this extremely large train of feathers behind me.” this makes peacocks much more punk rock than I had originally believed.