Peacocks don’t just show their feathers, they rattle them

The New York Times, Daily Mail and other media outlets highlighted research co-authored by Roslyn Dakin, a zoologist at UBC, which shows that when peacocks display their trains, they also shake them 25 times per second while keeping the iridescent eyespots nearly still.

The study also found that peacocks don’t vibrate when females aren’t around, and that males with longer, heavier feathers actually shake them faster rather than slower as might be expected–suggesting that feather vibrations could also signal male muscle power to the peahens.

Similar articles appeared on Discovery News and Discover Magazine.