Peacock Coloring Pages
Welcome to my Peacock coloring pages section.
Here's a peacock secret: that big shimmering fan isn't his tail! It's called a train, and a short stiff tail hides underneath to hold it up like a kickstand. Only the boys have one. A peahen is much plainer, with brown feathers and a touch of green on her neck.
Peacocks come from South Asia but now live in parks, farms and gardens all over the world. To impress a peahen, a peacock fans his train and shivers it so the feathers rustle. He's loud too, and his call carries a long way.
Jump to: Cute | Realistic | With Flowers | Feathers | Vases | Princesses | Adults and Teens | History
Cute and Simple Peacock Coloring Pages
A real peachick is a fluffy brownish chick that can walk soon after it hatches. It has no train at all, and a boy peachick won't grow his until he's about three years old. Cartoon peachicks get to show off early!
Realistic Peacock Coloring Pages
A peacock's blue and green aren't paint-style color. Tiny structures in the feathers bounce the light around so the shimmer changes as the bird turns. The blue peacock most of us picture is the Indian peafowl, but there's also a green peafowl in Southeast Asia and a Congo peafowl in Africa.
Peacocks with Flowers Coloring Pages
Peacocks have strutted through palace gardens for centuries, and in India the peacock is the national bird. Plenty of parks and big gardens still have a few wandering around.
Peacock Feather Coloring Pages
A peacock drops his long train feathers every year once breeding season is over and grows a fresh set in time to show off again. The shiny eye at the tip of each one is called an ocellus, which is Latin for "little eye".
Peacock Feather Vase Coloring Pages
Whether a vase of peacock feathers brings luck depends on who you ask. In India they're a sign of good fortune, but some old superstitions say bad luck follows them indoors because all those eyes are watching.
Peacock Princess and Fairy Coloring Pages
The emperor who built the Taj Mahal sat on a jewelled Peacock Throne, so a fan of peacock feathers is a pretty royal accessory. Fairies prefer to wear theirs as wings.
Peacock Coloring Pages for Adults and Teens
Greek stories say the goddess Hera put the hundred eyes of her fallen watchman on a peacock's tail so they'd never be forgotten.
Peacocks in History
Peacock feathers have a way of turning up wherever someone wants to be noticed. Gentlemen wore big plumes in their hats to show off. Masquerade guests hid behind feathered masks, and flappers danced through the 1920s with feathers in their hair. Quill pens were usually cut from goose feathers, but a peacock feather looks so much grander in an inkpot.
The peacock was Hera's bird. Greek stories say she had a watchman with a hundred eyes, and when he died she put every one of those eyes on a peacock's tail so they'd never be forgotten.
Shakespeare
Shakespeare's plays were first acted at the Globe theatre in London, where a penny bought you a spot to stand in the open-air yard, rain or shine. Backstage, each actor was handed a scroll copied out by hand with only his own lines, not the whole script.
Quill Pens
A quill is a pen made from a big feather. The hollow shaft holds a little ink, and the tip is cut to a point with a small knife, which is why we still call it a penknife. Most quills came from geese, and people wrote with them for hundreds of years until metal pens took over in the 1800s. Peacock feathers weren't the usual choice, but nothing looks fancier in an ink pot.
Masquerade Balls
At a masquerade ball nobody was supposed to know who anyone was, so a duke could end up dancing with a baker and neither would be any the wiser. Guests kept their masks on until a set time, often midnight, and then everybody found out who they'd been twirling with all night.
The Three Musketeers
The real musketeers were soldiers who guarded the king of France, and they were named for the muskets they carried. In the famous story, the hero is a young man named d'Artagnan who arrives in Paris hoping to become one, and he's soon swept up in their motto: all for one and one for all.
1920s Flappers
Flappers were young women in the 1920s who shocked their grandparents with short bobbed hair, knee-length dresses and a wild new dance called the Charleston. Fringe and long beads swung with every kick, and a feather headband finished off the look.