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]