What’s brown and white and feathered all over?

A Kingston turkey family, after it adopted an escaped white peacock from Plymouth and accepted him as one of their own.

White peacocks – they’re not actually albino, because they do have pigmentation – are extremely rare. So it certainly caught the attention of the nuns at the Kingston convent where the peacock and his turkey family like to roost in the trees at night and roam the grounds during the day.

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Eryn Allen works at Sisters of Divine Providence in Kingston, which is right next to the Sacred Heart convent. She said the white peacock began showing up at the convent along with the wild turkeys about three years ago. She said they were able to determine that the peacock came from the Ellis Haven campground in Plymouth – about four or five miles from the convent, as the peacock hops – which has a number of farm animals on its property.

“We tried to return it but they said that we could keep it, because it kept showing up with this group of turkeys,” Allen said.

Meghan Wrightington, Assistant Animal Control Officer for the Town of Kingston, said that decision makes sense and is probably what’s best for the peacock.

“It really is kind of like that,” she said. “He’s crossed that line. He’s a wild animal now, and that’s his choice.”

Facebook groups dedicated to the town of Plymouth and surrounding towns have posts about the white peacock and his turkey family going back for the past three years; it seems the rafter (yes, that is the proper name for a group of turkeys) gets around quite a bit and is seen frequently in the West Plymouth-Kingston area.

Wrightington said Kingston Animal Control gets frequent calls about the white peacock since many people think it is someone’s pet and that they are probably out searching for it.

According to Allen, although the turkeys and the peacock roam wild across the local area, they always return home to the convent.

“He just lives on the property now, with the turkeys – and with the nuns,” she said. “They all get along. It’s really so cool.”

Wrightington said it’s no surprise that the peacock was accepted into the rafter.

“Peacocks and turkeys are very similar in their species, so it’s kind of normal for that kind of stuff to happen,” she said.

But she said it is uncommon to see a white peacock thriving in the wild.

“Generally, an all-white peacock wouldn’t be successful in the wild, and he may meet his end at some point because of that,” Wrightington said. “If he’s all white, he doesn’t have the camouflage that a turkey or another peacock has, so he kind of sticks out a little bit more (to predators).”
However, she does believe the turkeys are helping to protect him in the wild.

“I think there is safety in numbers,” she said.

Wrightington said the white peacock has become a bit of a legend around the Kingston and Plymouth area, like the mysterious pukwudgie of the Bridgewater Triangle.

“It is kind of funny, but something only locals could understand,” she said. “I guess that’s just how the turkey crumbles.”

Kingston Turkeys Adopt Plymouth White Peacock As One of Their Own

What’s brown and white and feathered all over? A Kingston turkey family, after adopting a white peacock from Plymouth and accepting him as one of their own.

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