Peacock perched in Rio, Florida.

The males are growing out their lustrous long feathers for display as breeding season begins. Their piercing calls echo through that eastern part of Rio where peafowl wandered off Hollywood star Frances Langford’s jungly estate.

The estate was denuded of all vegetation and sat as golden brown dirt for a few years before a tract of new houses was built, but by then the peafowl had made their homes nearby among smaller, older houses with their older plantings of trees and shrubs.

Peacocks molt those striking, long feathers annually (in summer) and regrow new ones as mating season approaches.

They are not actually tail feathers but elongated upper tail “covert” feathers, growing out of their backs.

I spy with my little eye… something that is pretty and wants to be admired and photographed.

I was out for a stroller walk with my six-month-old grandson who lives with his parents in a peacock-rich neighborhood yesterday. He had drowsed off for his first nap of the day (he loves a nice fresh-air outdoor nap) while I deployed my Canon SX60 superzoom point-and-shoot camera that had been riding along in the bottom of the stroller.

But these peacocks are big and tame and not much zooming is necessary.

Ah, the color of those iridescent blue feathers! The feathers on his back remind me that peafowl are related to another big bird, the wild turkey.

The Phasianidae are a family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl.

They do remind me of flashy, tropical chickens too. Something about the head and curve of the beak and size of the eye.

Fond memories of my New Hampshire flock.

Free range.

The residents of Rio are generally fond of the birds. I wonder if these people painted their house on purpose to match the peacocks.

They leave big fat poops on driveways and walkways, they scream morning, noon and night for half the year (you mostly get used to it), but you cannot deny they are gloriously ornamental, beauty to behold.