Beautiful peacock - photos I shot few days ago in Warsaw's zoo

Few days ago I visited Warsaw's zoological garden, because with the beginning of October some animals are not available to watch. Autumn in Poland is quite cold and winter is coming :(

In the zoo I met a young peacock. This awesome bird runs freely, he isn't afraid of people who even touch him. He got used to crowds.

Although peacocks' natural habitats are rainforests, he seems to feel well in the zoo :) Despite the fact that they look massive, they are able to fly. They also shed their train (their "tail") every year so there's no need to make any harm to them to collect their awesome feathers. If you're lucky, you may find feathers in a place like this.

Their feathers aren't just colorful because of pygments. In fact they are covered with crystal-like structures and the light simply refracts, producing those all awesome colors.

I think that they don't starve in the zoo, because their diet consists of plants and insects, arthropods, amphibians and reptiles.

Their beautiful feathers are used for mating purposes - peacocks attract females using them. Females are known as peahens, and the collective name for the species is peafowl. Remember that the word "peacock" refers to males only.

Today most of us don't think of peacocks as food, but they were quite significant source of food in medieval times.

I wouldn't be able to eat such a beatiful creature. Today they're more protected. They're still killed in some regions of India, while in other places of this country they are protected for religious purposes. African peacocks, on the other hand, are close to extinct completely.

In Warsaw you can meet peacocks in the zoo and in the Royal Baths.