Taxonomy Green peafowl

1781 painting maruyama okyo

the species first classified pavo muticus carl linnaeus, although described in europe ulisse aldrovandi pavo iaponensis based on japanese painting given pope emperor of japan. interestingly, these birds depicted having no spurs; linnaeus followed aldrovandi s description. japanese had imported green peafowl southeast asia hundreds of years, , birds depicted in japanese paintings. result, type locality described linnaeus habitat in japonia , though species not native japan (they kept emperor , no longer occur). françois levaillant 1 of first western ornithologists see live bird, imported macau animal collection in cape of hope. indian painting, george shaw described peafowl native india blue head , upright lanceolate crest , named pavo spicifer, spike-crested peacock. third form of green peafowl described in 1949 jean delacour, imperator, found in indo-china. advice of bird dealer in hong kong, delacour concluded there 3 races of green peafowl, lumping spicifer species well. today authorities recognize these three:

pavo muticus muticus, java peafowl (nominate). extant population endemic east , western ends of java, indonesia. extinct populations malay peninsula kra isthmus extending south kedah have been described being synonymous javanese population, no published studies have confirmed assumption. described colourful of 3 subspecies, neck , breast metallic golden-green cerulean blue wing coverts. females have prominent barring on , tertials.
p. m. imperator, indo-chinese peafowl. east myanmar thailand, yunnan province in china , indochina, subspecies common , has widest distribution. in thailand, confined nan, yom, eng , ping river basins in northern thailand , huai kha khaeng , mae klong basins in western thailand. in vietnam, has become extinct in northern part of country, last large population being confined southeast in yok Đôn , cát tiên national park. imperator intermediate in colouration between other 2 forms.
p. m. spicifer, burmese peafowl. found in myanmar towards southwestern thailand. formerly in bangladesh northern malaysia. birds in northeast india considered extinct still sighted. however, sightings have been questioned feral or escaped birds. delacour considered west , east sides of irrawaddy river dividing line between spicifer , imperator respectively. population of spicifer reintroduced hlawga national park east of irrawaddy river. described duller other forms, has matte gun metal-blue olive-green neck , breast, , more black on wing-coverts , outer web of secondaries. crown of male violet-blue extends further down nape other subspecies, demarcating colours of crown , neck.

delacour dismissed several aberrant specimens individual variations (including type specimens imperator originating bolaven plateau in laos), , stated more subspecies may recognized further studies. however, few studies have been conducted substantiate delacour s classification, though accepted authorities. authors have suggested population found in yunnan, traditionally classified imperator, may race. using cytochrome b mitochondrial dna gene, ouyang et al. estimated divergence period between green , indian peafowl 3 million years. in same study, noted there appeared 2 different forms of green peafowl in yunnan should classified distinct subspecies. 2005 article star newspaper of malaysia stated research indicated malaysian form identical javanese form, study not published , authors dispute result. due large range of imperator in indochina, other subspecies within range have been proposed, notably annamensis of southeast asia , yunnanensis of yunnan.