There are quite a few images online of Peas crossing with chickens and guineas. You will also hear it is not possible but that is false.
The day that happens is the day I weep for the hobby. Thankfully congo peafowl are out of the hands of those who would try such a thing.
Can I ask why? Just curious, is it simply the muddling of the varieties, or is there something else?
The india blue is extinct as a species in captivity in the United States because of hybridization. Sure you get some that are superficially "blues" but often times you can see the result of Spalding heritage in the form of coal dusting coloration on the front of the wings. Wild blues look nothing like anything we have here. Green peafowl are rare but hanging on because a few dedicated people are keeping the best ones away from people who would mongrelize them. Green peafowl are endangered, congos probably are too, we don't need to compound that by mismanaging them for the purpose of making curio birds.
Ah, okay. That makes sense, thanks.
yep. That's why alot of pheasant people are so tight fisted with their birds. They don't want them to go to people who will cross them to add zeros onto a price tag. There's also the fact that the pheasant hobby is conservation oriented rather than ornament collecting.
I had no clue India blues were so crossed. So if I had one it would most likely be a cross?
It isn't just the cross-breeding with Greens and Spaldings but living conditions including feed have dramatically changed the IB to its present physical condition. Even if not cross-bred being kept in small enclosures and fed a poor diet, one that was intended to fatten up birds for slaughter has made the IB short in neck, leg, and body length and given them a fat and squatty overall appearance. They are no longer tall, lean, and slender like the wild birds.
