Martha's Peacocks Are Putting on a Dazzling Show at Her Bedford Farm—See Them Here

Martha loves and appreciates all types of animals, including the majestic peacock. In a recent blog post, she shared how it's a "very special time of year" for this type of bird at her Bedford, New York farm as breeding season has begun.

Martha has 18 peacocks, including a beautiful all-white one. "From now until early August, the peacocks display their stunning and iridescent tail feathers, strut back and forth shaking their hindquarters to produce a rattling sound, and make loud calls to the females around them," she writes in the blog post. "The peahens tend to choose males with the longest, most colorful tails. It's quite a 'tail show.'"

Only the males are peacocks while the females are peahens. But they're both called peafowl. A mature peacock can have up to 200 feathers in its tail with each feather growing up to 5 feet long at maturity. Females are less iridescent and have more muted colors and markings and don't have the elaborate tails that the males do.

"Peahens usually choose males that have bigger, healthier plumage with an abundance of eyespots," Martha writes. "After the season ends in August, the males lose their long tail feathers and then grow them back before the next breeding season begins. The train gets longer and more elaborate until five or six years old when it reaches maximum splendor."

During this time, the peacocks do a ritualistic dance to attract the hens. "The peacock turns in circles showing off his tail. This display is known as train-rattling. The ability to fan out the train is done with very strong and specialized muscles," Martha writes. "Researchers say the longer the train feathers, the faster the males would shake them during true courtship displays, perhaps to demonstrate muscular strength."

Since peacocks are polygamous, Martha says they often have several partners during the season, even after courtship and mating. Once a peafowl pair has bred, the peahen usually lays about three to eight brown eggs. The eggs take around 28 to 30 days to incubate before they hatch. "I wonder if we will have baby peachicks later this year," Martha writes.