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Why are there "eyes" drawn on peacock feathers?

Imagine a bird carrying the world's largest fan — one and a half meters wide and brighter than a rainbow. It's a peacock! But the most amazing thing is that each feather has an "eye" painted on it. Not a real one, of course, but a pattern of blue, green, and gold. There can be up to 200 of these "eyes" on the tail of one peacock!

What are they for? It's simple - to charm the peacocks. When the male wants to please the female, he raises his tail, fanns it and starts shaking it. The feathers tremble, the "eyes" flicker - and it looks as if hundreds of eyes are looking at the peacock at the same time. Hypnosis!

Scientists have tested: the more «eyes» on the tail, the faster the peacock chooses a male. Researcher Marion Petrie counted the «eyes» of 200 peacocks and found that males with 150+ «eyes» had twice as many pairs as those with 130. For the peacock, this is a signal: «I am strong, healthy, I can protect the chicks!»

And how does a peacock «paint» such «eyes»? It’s not paint. It’s the structure of the feather! Tiny plates refract light so that we see blue, green, gold — even if the feather itself is brown. This is called structural color. Soap bubbles shimmer in the same way.

It's interesting that wearing such a tail is difficult! It hinders flight and attracts the attention of predators. But beauty is worth the sacrifices - at least that's what the peacock thinks.

People have admired peacocks for millennia: they have been painted in India, Greece, and Ukraine. Have you ever seen a peacock in person?