the feathers on top of a peacock's head are called tarsal spurs.
the feathers on top of a peacock's head are called tarsal spurs.
what are the feathers on top of a peacock's head called?
tarsal spurs
kane has also studied the biomechanics of peacock courtship rituals. specifically, her group focused on how feather biomechanics influence the performance of male peacocks as they court females by fanning out and vibrating their tail feathers, a display behavior known as "train-rattling." kane initially discovered high-speed recordings of the behavior, captured by her collaborator roslyn dakin, who was studying the color of peacock feathers. the two began working together to capture more videos of peacock courtship rituals to understand how the tail feathers vibrate, and how those vibrations are received by the females. they found that the train-rattling behavior only occurs when females are present and that, as the tail shakes, the eyespots on the tail appear not to move, leading them to conclude that the shaking behavior enhances the appearance of the eyespots of the tail. in previous work, dakin found that the hue and iridescence of the tail's eyespots contribute to the mating success of the male. they also found that the tail feathers vibrate at their natural resonance frequency, producing sound waves that are within the audible range that females are able to hear. finally, they counterintuitively found that the longer and heavier the male's tail feathers were, the faster they were able to shake their feathers. in a follow-up study published in 2018, kane and dakin found that the vibrations sent out by males rattling their trains are actually felt by females on the crest of their head, which vibrates in turn. they found that at the base of the a female's crest feathers lies a tiny feather known as a filoplume, which acts as a mechanical sensor. when the crest feathers begin vibrating, the filoplume triggers a nerve cell, translating the physical vibrations of the plume into neuronal signal. to understand whether female plume vibrations were specifically in response to the mechanical signals sent out by male train rattling, kane and dakin used speakers to play a number of different sounds for female peacocks. the crests only vibrated in response to the train rattling sounds, with no response recorded when the researchers played white noise.
suzanne amador kane
the peacock returned as part of nbc's branding in september 1979. the "n" and the peacock were combined together to create a design called the "proud n". this marked the first time that the peacock was actually part of nbc's own logo. it was simplified in keeping with the letter's pared-down design. although all eleven feathers were intact, the teardrops tips is removed, while a simpler color scheme was used for the feathers themselves (blue for the feather behind the peacock's body; yellow, orange, red, indigo and purple respectively for the other feathers on both sides). the peacock's body became a simple triangular shape, without any feet. on several occasions, the new peacock was used independently of the "n", starting with the new "proud as a peacock" advertising campaign that reintroduced the peacock; however, the "n" and the peacock were usually combined together between 1979 and 1986. the 1979 proud n logo was designed by lippincott & margulies.
logo of nbc