There is nothing more spectacular among birds than the peacock. Figure 1 is one that I ran into at Viscaya in Miami last month. Unjustly, most have their wings clipped to prevent flight, and they are left to strut around and add an exotic asiatic touch to the garden.

I had never considered the issues of language here. You have to start with the word “peafowl.” All are peafowl. Peafowl refers to three bird species, genera Pavo and Afropavo. This fine fellow is an Indian blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus), just gorgeous. But the term peacock is, and it makes sense, the male of the species. Such brilliant color. And, of course, as with butterflies the color is not primarily pigment. Rather the vibrant iridescent plumage is structural, resulting from optical interference known as Bragg reflections. It is based on regular and periodic nanostructures of the barbules of the feathers.

Canon T2i withEF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 400 mm ISO 800 Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/200 th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.