Shake a tail feather

Of course the peacock is beautiful from the front, and his lovely coloured feathers have inspired artists and baffled Darwin, who is reputed to have written that the sight of them "made him sick".
But I'm just as impressed by the back view. Look at those stiff grey upright feathers - they're the ones which support the fan while it's open. Beneath them are some pretty flufffeatgersand to each side, some attractive black and white ones. When a peacock is born, it's a long time before its see can be reliably known, but the first clue is usually that the male develops those rusty coloured feathers at the base of its wings. All very complex, and very beautiful, and all being shaken very vigorously today at the peahen with a whirring noise made by the feathers flapping together...