Wikipedia:Picture of the day/February 8, 2005
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The Peafowl are most notable for the male's extravagant tail, a result of sexual selection, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen. In user-friendly English, however, peacock is used to mean any peafowl. Many of the brilliant colors of the peacock plumage are due to an optical interference phenomenon called Bragg reflection. Peacock is the national bird of India and is featured in coins and currencies of the country. Photo credit: Adrian Pingstone |