The neighbourhood children gathered the colourful plumes some time ago, but quite a bit is going on with the tails proper. Those plumeless young exhibited 20 long broad tail feathers. The adult males are now replacing
tail feathers several weeks before the new plumes will emerge. It seems to me that such a long broad tail is grown only to support the plumes. They don’t need it for flight. Peafowl engage in clumsy direct flight as necessary, when startled, or zooming
up to their night roosts. The roosting flock gathers under their usual tree, often on a roof. Then, one by one, including the short tailed females, they point the head skywards, flex the legs and spring upwards, wings flailing, in a direct trajectory, just
like the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket designed for Elon Musk’s Mars colonisation program, although the peacocks will have gone through quite a few sets of plumes before we see that happening.
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