I know I say it a lot, but I do want people to understand that peafowl are not cutesy, safe birds for just anyone to own, no matter what they look like when I post. They are capable of inflicting some serious damage when they want to.
For scale reference, Eris is a pretty small hen, around 7lbs. Her spurs are less than an inch long. She's normally fine to walk around, I can go pick her up off the perch, I give her smooches at night, I can handle her babies.
Last week, while I was refreshing wading bins with cool water for them, Eris decided dumping a bin was an intolerable act of aggression toward her, and she flogged me. Now, regardless of what I'm doing in the pen, I always have at least some of my attention on the birds. So while I didn't expect to be attacked, I saw it coming in time to get a knee up as she jumped.
She still GOT me, but the 1/2" puncture wound was in thigh flesh, not my face.
The thing is, this wasn't even a full power blow because she was thrown off by my interception. But it's enough that a week later I still have a roughly 3" bruise around a puncture wound she gave me through my jeans.
Yes, she did that through my jeans!!
Now imagine that same attack from a 10-12lb male, with spurs over an inch long and much sharper than a hen's, and imagine that he means it, WILL give it his full power every time he's able to, and it will be his life's mission to stalk you until you let your guard down and he can get you. It is unfortunately the reality people have to live with when they raise these birds incorrectly, and hand raise males.
THAT is why you do not snuggle male peachicks.
But this kind of situation with Eris is ALSO why I don't encourage others to get into these birds, and warn people that they are big and can do damage. Even the very friendly ones can have a bad moment where they make the wrong assumption about your actions, or they have a grouchy day or something. And the average person just doesn't need to deal with that nonsense. And the people that can handle it need to be aware that that's what they're getting into, BEFORE they get into it.
