The story goes thus:
About 18 years ago, two male peacocks, one blue, one white, strutted their way into a Boise Bench neighborhood. They wandered around together until they started crossing busy streets and causing traffic holdups. Had they escaped from the zoo or absconded from a private collector? In all these years, no one has figuredout their origins or why the blue peacock was removed not long after the duo made their first appearance. But we do know the white guy stayed to become the unofficial mascot of this Boise community.
His name is Screech. He loves pine nuts, sunflower seeds and peanuts. In winter, he eats dry cat food. When it gets cold, he loses all of his tail feathers and spends the darkest months of the year looking like a white turkey.
He knows he's a handsome bird; I've often caught him staring into a reflective window or a shiny hubcap, admiring the crest punctuating his head, his long sweeping neck and pale yellow half circles under his eyes. He prances across the pavement with a mass of white feathers dragging behind. I can't help but think the trend of brides with long, flowing trains were inspired by this bird.
Peafowl are native to India and I was surprised that a Pavo cristatus could survive freezing temperatures. But I also couldn’t quite believe it when I saw feral parrots, also of south-Indian origins, could survive in Mannheim, Germany in winter.
White peafowl are not albinos. Albinism is caused by a gene mutation that stops production of melanin, a pigment found in most organisms. These monochrome birds have another rare mutation called leucism that affects the expression of melanin as opposed to its production. Birds with this mutation don’t have pink eyes like an albino would.
Known as the bird with a thousand eyes, the peacock is India's national bird and is woven into the culture's mythology and scriptures. The bird was also sacred to Hera, Zeus' wife, in ancient Greek lore.
Screech has his rhythms and routines. In the evenings, he visits different driveways and fans out his feathers. A symbol of grace and regality, the bird in the pheasant family reveals his physically awkward and unwieldy side at bedtime. Every night, he starts a journey to the top of a chimney, where he takes flight for a few moments to get himself to a fence. Another short jaunt to the roof and then a final ascent to the chimney. His feathery mass bogs him down as he struggles to stay airbound. He falls asleep, perched overlooking roofs, protected from predators.
Every morning from April to August, Screech sits on his post and brays a call that sounds like something between a laughing hyena and a cat being strangled. Roosters are banned in Boise because of their morning crows, but neighbors put up with Screech's pre-dawn yelling, likely because of his daytime charm.
Since his blue mate was taken away, Screech has been a solitary bird, but his dedication to his mating calls in summer is admirable. A peahen did show up one summer day in 2016, but despite much fanning and shimmying, the female was not impressed. Which is probably a good thing because peafowl can become nuisance when they breed unchecked, like in southern California.
So, with no chance of offspring, Screech has become a delightful icon for the neighborhood and for the city of Boise. Mayor Lauren McLean has a painting of a white peacock in her office.
Our Morning Edition host, George Prentice, posted this story in a newsroom Slack:
A White Peacock would regularly land on the roof of my folks' townhome off of Parkcenter. On the day my mom passed away, the peacock was gone... and... again, all true, her friends all brought white peacock feathers to her memorial service. The legend of the white peacock goes back at least 15 years.
Screech’s origin story will probably never be solved, but throughout the years, peacocks showing up in different neighborhoods have been reported. Most recently, a report by KTVB mere days before the first reported case of COVID-19 was reported in Idaho. (Could this be Screech's long-lost mate?) And there’s another report of a white peacock showing up in a different neighborhood in 2012. It’s not clear, if “Kevin” in this video is Screech or perhaps there is a second white peacock wandering Boise neighborhoods.
Have you seen the white peacock? Share your story with us in an DM on Instagram or Facebook, or email the newsroom: kbsxnewsroom@boisestate.edu with "White Peacock" as your subject line.
