Peacock Posse

The thing we love about Houston is that there’s always something new to discover…

One of our favorite, little known, and * gasp * outside-of-the-loop quirks of the city involves none other than peafowl. Yes, those crazy, primitive, yet beautiful, blue plumed birds are the central draw to one neighborhood in Northwest Houston.

On a given afternoon, in Candlelight Forest (close to the Bingle/Little York intersection), there are a couple dozen, sometimes more, peahens and peacocks milling about the neighborhood freely. They make their rounds all day long, stopping in yards to graze on, well, whatever it is that peafowl eat. And yes, they do fly—onto roofs, fences and anything else they feel like at the time. They also call to each other frequently in a squawk that can only be described as a mutated cat screech, quite startling to the virgin ear.

There’s even an all-white male affectionately referred to by the residents as “Whitey.” He ironically suffers isolation, as the peafowl population seems quite racist.

The peafowl originated from an old farmhouse that the neighborhood was built around in the 1970's, and they just kept procreating. Now, the neighborhood provides them with shelter from the busy nearby streets and a place to roam. Even baby peafowl sometimes show up occasionally in resident’s flower beds around this time every year.

If the mood strikes you, take a little trip up 290 and visit the land of the wandering peafowl…Just don’t drive too fast, it’s the middle of a neighborhood, and the pea-brains inside those beautiful, tiny heads tend to block out any clue of danger from speeding cars.

We’re hoping you get a glimpse before we pitch a reality show to Animal Planet (as a follow up to their popular show, Meerkat Manor, aptly named "Peacock Posse"). Who knows? Houston’s next reality star may be Whitey.