How To Get Rid Of Peacocks

The peacock is one of the most beautiful birds in the world. The glorious blues and greens of the feathers of the male bird, and the intriguing design of the tail feathers when the male struts are incomparable in the bird world. The peahens aren’t nearly as lovely, as is common among birds. They are more of a drab brown and lack the long tail feathers of their male counterparts. They are not often known to be nuisance birds, coming into your yard in flocks and disturbing your peace. This is primarily because most peacocks in the United States are in captivity. They are in zoos, parks, or privately owned.

But now and then, one or more may escape and look for a new home. You may be a person who welcomes a peacock as a unique guest. But after it hollers its loud cry at four or five o’clock in the morning, you and your neighbors may have second thoughts. Peacocks and peahens leave fairly large droppings, which tend to mess up the yard, driveway, patio, sidewalk, or wherever they happen to be when they get the urge to “go.” So when you have the interesting situation of having been chosen by a peafowl to provide its new home, but you can’t keep it, just how do you go about getting rid of it?



Contact Zoos
Obviously, you don’t want to kill such a beautiful bird. And there are other ways to persuade it to find more suitable living quarters. The first thing you should do is to call any nearby zoos or parks or bird breeders in your area to see if they are missing one of their birds. If this turns out to be the case, they will come out and capture the runaway. But if this fails, then what?

Try To Relocate The Peacock
You can try calling the Fish and Game Department of your state to see if they will come out and remove the bird. Or you can try to relocate it yourself. If you are left to get rid of it on your own, do some homework before even trying to capture the peafowl. Where will you take it? Will a local zoo, wildlife preserve, park, or breeder take the bird? If so, will they come out and help you catch it? If no such place exists in your area, and you don’t wish to drive 250 miles to the nearest zoo with a peafowl in the back of your pickup (or Smart Car!), maybe you can find someone who lives out in the country who would be willing to take in the homeless bird.

Catching The Bird
Once you have found a new home for Pete the Peacock, all that is left is encouraging him to hop into the car and go for a nice ride. Yeah, right. As with any wild critter, a peacock can be quite opposed to letting a strange human get too close. There are some ways to get around this foible of the skittish creature. First, have right handy a crate, gunnysack, or other cage in which to put the peafowl once you have caught it. Make sure it is of sufficient size to hold the bird for its relocation ride.

You can try luring it to you with food. Peafowl will eat chicken feed, so unless you have some on hand, you will have to go to the local feed store and buy a small bag of it. It may take a few days of you patiently scattering the feed and the bird getting accustomed to it. Each time you throw a handful out, let it fall a little closer to you. Within a few days, the peafowl may have overcome its fear of you enough to come close to you, and maybe even eat out of your hand. When the bird is distracted by the food, a second person may be able to creep up behind or beside it and grab hold. This can only happen if the bird has become accustomed to both of you, and then it will still be hard and may take several attempts.

You may have to throw a blanket or something over it to subdue it. When you have a hold of the bird, grab its feet or legs to keep it from kicking and scratching you with its claws. Watch its head, too, for it will more than likely try to peck you, and they have strong beaks. Then place the bird in the cage, crate, or gunnysack that you have ready, and close it tightly.

Using A Trap
Another way to catch a peafowl would be to secure a large live trap. Place some chicken feed along the ground leading up to the trap and put some inside to lure it into the trap. Be sure that when the trap door closes that it doesn’t damage the peacock’s tail, and that it is large enough to not come down on the bird’s body.

Go back to the Bird Removal home page.

Peacocks are beautiful and almost magical-looking creatures… until you’re being chased by an angry male that is looking to find a female and thinks you’re lurking around on his territory! 

These majestic birds have got quite the temper on them. They’re even known for fighting with their own reflections in shiny car door panels or glass windows. Because of that, you do not want to encourage the return of them to your property. 

Although there are many, the main reason why a peacock would want to hang out in your back garden is for the food you’ve provided for them. This can be in the form of chicken feed, bird seed, or even flowers and plants you have growing in your flower beds. The latter can be protected with cages constructed from chicken wire or similar, but the chicken feed must be swept away and kept secure from peacock intruders. You will also need to either take in your bird feeder for a while, or install something to catch the seeds that fall to the floor. You will also want to make sure that trash cans are properly secured and not easily accessible, along with compost heaps. 

Alongside this approach, you will also need to make your property unfriendly. This can come in the form of a saucepan and lid clanged together (if you’re brave enough to venture outside) or the lawn sprinkler being turned on.