Pavo (bird)

Pavo is a genus of two species in the pheasant family. The two species, along with the Congo peafowl, are known as peafowl.

Pavo Temporal range: Late Miocene to present
Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus) displaying its tail
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Phasianidae
Tribe:	Pavonini
Genus:	Pavo Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Pavo cristatus (Indian peafowl) Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Pavo cristatus Pavo muticus

A white peafowl

Taxonomy

The genus Pavo was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.^[1] The genus name is the Latin word for a peacock.^[2] The type species is the Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus).^[3]

Species

The genus contains two species.^[4]

Genus Pavo – Linnaeus, 1758 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Indian peafowl Male Female	Pavo cristatus Linnaeus, 1758	South Asia; introduced elsewhere	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Green peafowl Male Female	Pavo muticus Linnaeus, 1766 Three subspecies P. m. muticus Linnaeus, 1766 P. m. spicifer Shaw, 1804 P. m. imperator Delacour, 1949	Southeast Asia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN

Fossil record

• Pavo bravardi (Bravard's peafowl) (Early – Late Pliocene) – Gallus moldovicus, sometimes misspelt moldavicus, may be a junior synonym^[5]
• Gallus aesculapii, a Late Miocene – Early Pliocene "junglefowl" of Greece, may also have been a peafowl^[5]

In the Pliocene on the Balkan Peninsula, Bravard's peafowl coexisted with ptarmigans (Lagopus sp.)^[6] Peafowl were widespread on the Balkan Peninsula and in Southeastern Europe until the end of the Pliocene.^[7]

References

1. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 156.
2. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
3. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 133.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Pheasants, partridges, francolins". IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
5. Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile (1989). "A peafowl from the Pliocene of Perpignan, France" (PDF). Palaeontology. 32 (2): 439 – via The Palaeontological Association.
6. Boev, Zlatorar (1998). "Peafowls (g. Pavo Linnaeus, 1758) and Ptarmigans (g. Lagopus Brisson, 1760): an [sic] unique coexistance in North Bulgaria over 3 m. y. ago". - Biogeographia, Nuova Serie, Siena, 19 – 1997: 219-222. doi:10.21426/B6110058
7. Boev, Z. 2002. Fossil record and disappearance of peafowl (Pavo Linnaeus) from the Balkan Peninsula and Europe (Aves: Phasianidae). – Historia naturalis bulgarica, 14: 109-115.

External links

• White Peacocks Information