The Savannah Neighborhood With a Wild Peacock Problem
For the last three years, residents of a neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia, have been faced with a unique problem. The quiet suburb of Windsor Forest has reportedly been overrun by 14 wild peafowl—and the situation is anything but beautiful.
"They make very eerie sounding calls, especially in the middle of the night when it's dark and you just hear it out of nowhere. It's kind of creepy," resident Leah Hammons told WJCL.
Barbara Owens told the local news station that the roof of her house is a popular hangout spot for the birds.
"When they're on top of the house and it's getting late in the evening the [male] will go up on the roof and call of the females and they will roost on top of the house," Owens told WJCL.
To make matters worse, the peafowl have a habit of ruining decorative flowers and plants by eating or sitting on them. But when they're not wreaking havoc on the landscaping, Owens said they're more than happy to pose for photos.
"They love taking pictures," she said. "Because they will be here in the front and people stop and look at them and the male will fan out his feathers and he'll twirl for them to take pictures so they kind of know what they're doing."
Peafowl, which are native to parts of Asia and Africa, roost in trees and have a wingspan of up to five feet across. The males(peacocks) use the feathers of their large iridescent trains to attract females (peahens). Territorial and proud, they can be aggressive when they feel threatened.
According to WJCL, Windsor Forest residents have been trying to have the winged invaders relocated, but animal control cannot relocate the birds because they "are not domesticated animals."
