Lost Peacock Finds New Home

SOUTHOLD, NY — A lost peacock who strutted into a Southold woman's yard and never left has found a new home.

Val Boergesson said on Thursday that the peacock was successfully rescued by a bird specialist who takes in unwanted birds and finds loving homes for them.

"He makes sure the animals are going to a good place," she said. "The peacock is going to some privately owned ranch in Smithtown, where they’re all free to roam."

As for some who protested that perhaps the peacock may have been better off left alone, Boergesson said the man who saved him said the bird was clearly tame "and should not be running around in the Bayview area. He said a hawk could get it, a fox could get it, a car could get it. Now, this bird can be in a nice enclosed coop in the wintertime instead of freezing and not having any food."

Boergesson said the peacock, who had evidently been wandering the Main Bayview Road area recently, first came into her yard about four days ago — and had shown no signs of wanting to spread his glorious wings and fly off.

The peacock, she said, had been "hanging around, sleeping on my roof at night."

He seemed tame, she said, allowing him to come within an inch to feed him. "He's used to people. He definitely seems lost."

Boergesson, a self-professed animal lover, worked to help the multi-colored beauty, calling animal shelters and animal farms in the hopes of hearing that a peacock has been reported missing.

She was told by one game farm owner — who couldn't take the lost stunner because he's taken in a few already this year — that oftentimes, people buy peacocks and then, are dismayed when they realize that, while their plumage is pure beauty, they're loud and noisy, especially in the mornings.

"He said someone probably brought him out here and dumped him," Boergesson said. "No one seemed to be looking for their missing bird."

When she fed him for the first time, after having looked up peacock diets on the internet — they like grapes and lettuce, she reported — Boergesson said he was starving and ate hungrily.

Trying to help, Boergesson called farms near and far and peacock breeders to try and re-home her unexpected guest.

When told she went above and beyond to help the stray peacock, Boergesson said she knew she had to do something: "This poor guy was hungry and lost."