Peacocks are just the norm for a WHC employee

With their brightly colored bodies and iridescent tail feather trains, peacocks strike most of us as rare and exotic.

To Fresh Wind Worship coordinator Terri Packard, the showy birds are nearly as common as the cows on her farmstead outside Cedar Falls. She grew up seeing peacocks on what was her grandparent’s dairy farm and about 15 of the birds came with the estate when she bought it.

“I love how they look, having them around to watch, and most of all, I love their sounds,” Terri enthuses. “They make such amazing, loud sounds, and they ‘talk back’ when you talk to them. I always know if someone pulls in the driveway or a predator is around because they sound their alarms and go wild, honking, calling, making crazy noises!”

Terri collects their feathers when they drop each summer. She sells some and turns others into earrings or craft projects like table décor and wreaths.

Terri with one of her peacocks.

The peafowl, as Terri calls them, roam freely and roost in trees; when it’s windy, they can find protection in the rafters of a lean-to barn. They get fresh water and cracked corn each day, and they’ll eat leftovers, vining seeds and fruits, insects, small mammals and snakes, too.

They’ve grown up around humans but are not domesticated.

“I can stand less than an arm’s length from them and they aren’t bothered, but to ‘pet’ them is not their thing,” Terri affirms. “They have never pecked at me; they’d rather get away than be mean to me, which I prefer.”