The head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section is asking residents to be on the lookout for a roaming domestic bird spotted this week in the northeastern part of town.
The male peacock sighted Monday on County Club Road and Tuesday on Laurel Road is on the move during breeding season and “looking for a female,” Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm said.
“We’re asking people who see the peacock to put out bread or cereal or oatmeal and see if we can get him to habituate to the property and if he’s hungry he can hang around, but experts say there’s enough resources in foraging so he’s probably not hungry,” she said.
Halm said she has not yet received a report of a missing peacock though the bird most likely is someone’s pet. A resident may have acquired the peacock, as some do Guineafowl, to eat bugs and ticks.
“I’m not sure if he’s more ornamental or purposeful,” Halm said, the but the bird’s roaming is “a shame because a coyote is going to get it.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that it’s not going to make it long-term,” she said.
The peacock appears to be heading east, toward Wilton, Halm said said.
She responded to a call Tuesday morning of a sighting on Laurel Road “and I got out there quickly, but apparently it is able to fly and it flew over pond into another yard, and so I started looking for it in the Ferris Hill Road area and spoke to some construction guys who saw it.
“It’s on the move and it can fly and I always tell people that if it can fly, I can’t, so catching it isn’t going to be easy,” Halm said.
The animal control officer in Greenwich for 12 years, Halm is now in her sixth year in New Canaan.
“This is probably my third peacock in my career,” she said.
I live on Ferris Hill and just had the bird walk through my yard at 6PM on 4/27. I left a message with animal control.
When we lived on Sheridan drive, our property backed up to the reservoir. From time to time we had peacocks in the back yard
My family and I recently moved here from Coral Gables, FL, where roaming wild peacocks are very commonplace, but I certainly didn’t think we’d see them roaming here. So imagine my surprise yesterday when this majestic fellow walked across our front yard (I learned that my neighbors had called animal shortly before this)!
Fortunately, they are strong enough fliers to fly up onto roofs and into trees, where they sleep at night, which helps them to avoid predators. (In FL, their biggest “predators” are cars.) This particular male is fairly large, so he’s probably already familiar with coyote-avoidance tactics…at least for his sake let’s hope so.
I hope you’re right, Sarah. Thank you for reading and for posting your comment, and welcome to New Canaan.
If the peacock is captured I can adopt him if the owners don’t claim him. I have a farm in Sandy Hook with a large enclosed area for birds and we would be happy to have him !
There is a lady in north stamford, looking for a peacock i saw a notice on the neighborhood website!
I saw the (giant) peacock around 8:00am Monday crossing Frogtown Rd near the new New Canaan Country School gymnasium. When it got towards the North side of the road it flew over a rock/stone wall. I drive this road every morning to/from NCCS and see a lot of turkeys but this was definitely a peacock.
Was there an update on the roaming peacock?
The peacock left New Canaan, according to Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. He was seen in Vista, N.Y., then Ridgfield and last reported seen in South Salem, N.Y., she said.