Skip to content

Indian Peafowl and Sri Lankan Junglefowl Allopreening Was Documented in the Wild in South Asia for the First Time

Female Indian peafowl standing in grass
Research · Behaviour

A female Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and a male Sri Lankan junglefowl (Gallus lafayettii) were documented preening each other in Kumana National Park, Sri Lanka, providing the first published record of interspecific allopreening in the wild from South Asia. Allopreening is feather grooming performed by one bird on another and is usually an affiliative behaviour within the same species; here, the grooming was mutual and crossed a species boundary.

The interaction was observed on 18 May 2025 at about 07:49. Both birds actively used their beaks to preen feathers around the other bird’s head, neck and upper body. The researchers reported no signs of aggression or distress. The pair remained together for approximately 10 minutes in a small open grassland area beside a forest trail.

The interaction ended when both birds rushed into adjacent dense forest, apparently after an approaching safari vehicle disturbed them. No other individuals of either species were present nearby. The authors note that interspecific allopreening is rarely recorded among wild birds and is more commonly reported from captivity or highly social mixed-species flocks. Allopreening can contribute to social bonding or feather and ectoparasite care in birds, but this single observation cannot establish why these two individuals engaged in it. The authors therefore treat the record as evidence of unusual social flexibility and call for further field observations to clarify how often such interactions occur and what triggers them.

Sources and image credit

  1. Rathnasooriya, W. L. D., & Selwaraja, R. (2026). Helping beaks: An observation of interspecific allopreening between Indian Peafowl and Sri Lankan Junglefowl. Ornis Hungarica, 34(1), 463–466. https://doi.org/10.2478/orhu-2026-0034Primary open-access article published 6 June 2026. A female Indian peafowl and a male Sri Lankan junglefowl were observed allopreening for about 10 minutes in Kumana National Park on 18 May 2025; the authors describe it as the first wild South Asian record of interspecific allopreening. The article is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Image: Gary Leavens / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — female Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), photographed 30 May 2016; representative female image, not the bird from the Kumana observation · CC BY-SA 2.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Behaviour

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.