Peacock Rolls Into Town, Decides He Lives Here Now

One day Mr. P. the peacock appeared in a residential neighborhood in New Orleans.

Then he decided to never leave.

"Some people say he was here before [Hurricane] Katrina," Lisa Palumbo, a faculty member at the University of New Orleans and a resident of West Carrollton, the neighborhood where Mr. P. reigns as king, told The Dodo.

"But if he was, I'd never seen him and I live on the street where he's lived for 28 years," she said.

Palumbo, who started a Facebook group dedicated to the feathered fowl, says that most of the neighborhood remembers seeing Mr. P. for the first time after the hurricane that devastated the city back in 2005.

"Everybody thought he came from the zoo, but the zoo had all of ... [their peacocks] accounted for, so nobody really knows where he came from," Palumbo said.

In any case, Mr. P. decided to make West Carrollton his permanent home and most of locals have been more than happy to cater to him. But some aren't too thrilled about Mr. P.'s particular habit of checking himself out in the shiniest car bumpers - while he is one beautiful bird, there's more to the habit than plain ol' narcissism.

"When he sees his reflection in a car or anything else that shiny, he thinks it's a rival and he pecks at it," Palumbo said, though she added that she's also caught him on camera just checking himself out.

When neighbors started to complain to the local SPCA that Mr. P. was damaging cars with his pecking (and about his loud cawing, which he does to attract mates and express his dislike of revving car engines), Mr. P.'s fans brought in the support of the local government.

Now, Susan Guidry, a New Orleans councilwoman, is working with the residents of West Carrollton to make the neighborhood a "bird sanctuary" zone. If the ordinance comes to pass, Mr. P. will be able to continue living freely in the neighborhood, as it would be illegal to bother, trap, hunt or harm him in any way.

"Mr. P. gets along with some of the neighborhood cats and dogs," Palumbo said, noting that, for the most part, Mr. P. is a low-key sort of peacock.

He eats cat food the neighbors leave out for him and loves being fed nuts and seeds. He also gets very excited over juicy insects.

"He really is a gem and he has a funny personality," Palumbo said. "He's generally kind of aloof, and he decides, not you, if you're going to ever be able to get close to him."

Palumbo recalled a recent incident where Mr. P. was cawing loudly just outside her home and, when she went to check on him, all he wanted was to apparently show off his tail feathers (and butt).

Such acts are just par for the course for Mr. P., who only seems to add to the quirky charm and color of the city best known for its festive Mardi Gras celebrations - and apparently, its colorful birds.

"It's really strange that we have all these peacocks around here," Palumbo said. "I think we only know where one came from."

Watch this video about an emu who loves to play fetch ... just like a dog: