Rumours of peacocks on the Toronto Islands are true. Every once in a while, about the Toronto Islands, , or in conversation, someone will mention the peacocks, triggering speculation that if they do exist, they’re probably descendants of runaways from Far Enough Farm on Centre Island. Talk falls off quickly, because it seems so improbable.
India is their native home. Peacocks couldn’t possibly survive a Canadian winter, even a wimpy Toronto winter — right? It turns out, wild peacocks roam freely on Mugg’s Island, but under the watchful eye of staff at the Toronto Island Yacht Club, who provide them with a warm place to winter and stay safe from coyotes who walk across the harbour ice to hunt on the islands. Unlike many other species of birds, peafowl — the males are peacocks and the females are peahens — are comfortable approaching humans.
In exchange, the peacocks enchant members with their spectacular plumage during mating season. Known to be curious, they show up for gala events, peering at visitors from the roof, or approaching them on the patio. “They’re like us, they like to see what’s going on,” said Paulo de Amelo, marine and yard manager, who brought the first feathered couple to the club in the 1990s, to animate and give character to the grounds.
Conrad, the patriarch, likes to perch on the roof of the restaurant, spying at diners through glass windows. “He loves to watch us on a busy day,” said restaurant supervisor Holly Berton. On Mugg’s Island you can find a small flock of peacocks roaming the grounds of Toronto’s Island Yacht Club.
Conrad and his family — Bella and their chicks, Michelle, Gus, David and Adam — peck around the marine yard for bugs, occasionally popping into someone’s office, and, creatures of habit, head to the club at around noon for handouts from kitchen staff to supplement their regular diet. Unlike many other species of birds, peafowl — the males are peacocks and the females are peahens — are comfortable approaching humans. “When we get here first thing in the morning, sometimes they’re waiting for us on the main dock.
If you leave the door open, they come in the kitchen,” said de Amelo. There are pockets of peafowls across North America — the birds have been exchanged as gifts for centuries, and now populate every continent except Antarctica, according to the National Audubon Society. Unlike many other species of birds, peafowl — the males are peacocks and the females are peahens — are comfortable approaching humans.
In warmer climates they sometimes in suburban areas that specialists are called in to capture and relocate them to farms and ranches. “We have them in Southern California; there’s a few populations in Northern California, Florida, Utah. I got a call from Nebraska once,” said Jonathan Gonzalez, president, Raptor Events, a California-based company specializing in humane relocation of the birds.
While beautiful, peacocks are noisy during mating season; they are large birds and their guano makes a mess; they will peck at and can damage anything with a reflective surface, including a car with a glossy paint finish. “Males scream their heads off during mating season — they’re louder than a rooster,” said Gonzalez. In the wild, if one peacock met another peacock, one of them would back down, but a peacock looking at a reflective surface thinks he’s met an opponent who wants to fight him.
“Someone called me about a really injured bird because he fought his reflection so hard that he was bleeding. He’d broken a window with his pecking,” said Gonzalez. They can also damage solar panels and roof tiles when they swoop down to roost.
“It’s mesmerizing when you see them displaying and shaking their feathers,” said the Toronto Zoo’s Jon Spero, lead keeper, birds and terrestrial invertebrates. “It doesn’t seem like it should even be real.” Gonzalez said different communities have different tolerance levels for the birds.
Some want to keep the peacock population under 10, while others are happy to live with more than 100 birds across several neighbourhoods. The Island Yacht Club, which spans 16 acres, sticks with a population of about six, and the birds tend to stay close to home. When the flock becomes too large, the chicks are brought to a trusted local farm to live.
Six is as many as the club can easily look after, without them interfering with operations, invading the kitchen, or taking over the patio. They are generally safe on the grounds of the yacht club, although occasionally a bird is lost to predators like minks, and the club has lost at least one peacock to a coyote. The Mugg’s Island birds are not accessible to the general public.
The club is private property, the rest of Mugg’s Island is uninhabited, and there are no docking facilities for water taxis. Peacocks are omnivores, eating bugs, snakes, and even small mammals, according to the Toronto Zoo’s Jon Spero, lead keeper, birds and terrestrial invertebrates. “One of the reasons they’re able to adapt so easily over here, is that generalist diet — it’s very easy for them to find what they need,” he said.
It’s not unusual for hobbyists to keep peafowl in Ontario. “Just last week, someone called and asked if a peacock had gotten loose at the zoo, but it was just someone else’s,” said Spero. If they have a source of food, a roost and a sheltered area, they tend to stick close to home, he added.
The public fascination with the birds is easy to explain. “It’s mesmerizing when you see them displaying and shaking their feathers,” said Spero. “It doesn’t seem like it should even be real.
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