Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/7 Next image Previous image Toggle captionSkip to navigation The Punta Marina peacocks started roaming the streets during Covid and now seem there to stay. Photograph: Nicolas Brunetti View image in fullscreen The Punta Marina peacocks started roaming the streets during Covid and now seem there to stay. Photograph: Nicolas Brunetti Peacock ‘invasion’ of Italian seaside town ruffles feathersWith Punta Marina residents loving or loathing the incomers, ‘peacock rangers’ have been appointed to defuse tensions Federico Bruni was sitting on a bench, eating a piadina romagnola (flatbread sandwich) and minding his own business, when a peacock strutted up in the hope of a few crumbs. High-pitched squeals emanated from the direction of a disused military barracks across the road. “That would be the call to love,” Bruni said. “The male peacocks are courting the female ones – we’re in peak mating season.”As another couple of peacocks wandered by, their iridescent trains sweeping the pavement behind them, this could be mistaken for a wildlife park. But the scene is Punta Marina, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region that has been colonised by the birds, to the delight – or despair – of its approximately 1,000 residents.The birds have made their home in the gardens of abandoned properties and perch…
Published: May 16, 2026 5:19 pm
Source: The Guardian — Read original