INVASION OF THE PEACOCKS!

They might look stunning, but feral flocks of birds are running riot across some of England's prettiest villages... and dividing many communities with their anti-social behaviour

- By Adam Toms

A PEACOCK, its blue and green plumage shining in the sunlight, leans its head back, and produces a piercing call that echoes through the picturesque Staffordshire village of Tutbury on a warm June morning. A woman, who has clearly been irritated by the sound many times beforehand, shouts from behind her garden fence: “Oh, shut up!”

This countryside community finds itself divided over the birds so much so that, when talking to the Express, residents held back some of their details, lest they provoke some form of retaliation from their neighbours. Locals who are pro-peacock say they feel “persecuted” and have had “set-tos” with villagers less fond of the creatures.

The problem is not exclusive to Staffordshire, with numbers of the birds reportedly soaring in Hibaldstow in Lincolnshire, where there is an estimated one peafowl the collective term for peacocks and peahens for every 80 villagers.

In addition, there are thought to be around 30 birds in Gulval, near Penzance in Cornwall, accused of scratching cars, blocking roads and leaving droppings on lawns.

And in 2014, the East Yorkshire village of North Ferriby appealed to a nearby stately home to save them from a “large and noisy” community of “feral” peafowl.

Natives of India, the birds like hot weather, but expert Sussanne Chambers from Peacocks UK a peafowl farm situated in the Worcestershire countryside tells me they are “robust”, meaning they can survive frosts and cold conditions when adults. However, they dislike rain and wind, while their chicks need to be kept constantly warm.

Thought to have been originally introduced to Britain by the Romans, peafowl were later shipped back to the UK by the rich who came across them during their Grand Tours of continental lands to make their country homes more exotic.