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India sent five peafowls — four blue males and one white male — to the United Nations Office at Geneva in August 2026.
Ambassador Arindam Bagchi, India's Permanent Representative, handed them to UN Geneva Director General Tatiana Valovaya.
It is India's second such gift, after a breeding pair sent from Delhi Zoo in 1981 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The Indian peafowl, Pavo cristatus, was declared India's national bird in 1963.
It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and placed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Peafowl is the collective term for the species. The male is a peacock, the female a peahen, and the young are peachicks — a distinction exams exploit, since 'peacock' is used loosely for both sexes in ordinary speech. The two look strikingly different, an example of sexual dimorphism: the male has a metallic blue head and neck, a crest, and the long iridescent train with eye-shaped ocelli, while the female is smaller with brown plumage and slight green colouring. White peafowl are worth a separate note: they are a genetic colour variation, not albinos, and the difference is visible in the eyes, which retain normal pigmentation in white peafowl but not in true albinos.
Simple Analogy: Same species, two entirely different-looking birds — and the plain one is the female.
General Awareness > National Symbols and Current Affairs
GS Paper III > Biodiversity and Conservation; GS Paper II > Soft Power
General Awareness > Environment and National Symbols
The scientific name of the Indian peafowl, India's national bird.
The pheasant family, which includes peafowl, jungle fowl, partridge, pheasant and quail.
The eye-shaped spots on the peacock's train.
The category of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 carrying the highest level of legal protection.