Long Island Farmer Tries To Track Down Missing Peacock

LATTINGTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The search is on for a peacock that flew the coop on Long Island.

The animal, named Pea, went missing from a farm in Lattingtown on April 19 and apparently traveled all the way into Suffolk County.

His owner, Eddie Armstrong, said he heard Pea was last seen 12 miles away in Huntington Village on Monday.

"First it went to Lattingtown church, then it went to Birch Hill Road, then it went to Bayville Road and that was the last I heard of it until last night. I hear it's in Huntington now," Armstrong told 1010 WINS.

Armstrong said Pea is missed by his fellow peacock, Pea II.

"His friend, the other peacock, he cries all night long and we feel bad about that," Armstrong said. "He used to sleep on my house's chimney and the two of them used to sleep there but he stays up in a tree now and he just cries all night."

It is mating season for peacocks, thus the extravagant eye-popping plumage. Armstrong, a farmer, wonders if Pea's courtship ritual lured him away, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.

"It was looking for a girlfriend," he told WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs.

The 81-year-old hopes he'll finally be able to track down the bird.

"I should be able to catch it because I can get within a foot of it and then I just kind of lunge at it and I can get it," Armstrong said.

He worries that a fox might find the lost peacock before he does. Pea has been spotted at the local church, then at the fish hatchery, and finally roosted at Griffith Lane in Huntington.

"I was cleaning my kitchen windows," Huntington homeowner Erica Blau said. "There on the lawn was the peacock. I ran out with my camera, my husband was weeding."

Blau said the peacock didn't look lost and was walking around observing things.

The owner said his dear Pea should live another decade, and hopes he will get the chance to save him.

"I can kind of talk to him and maybe have some grain, and i will be able to get within one foot, just dive and pick him up," Armstrong said.

Armstrong asks anyone who may encounter the bird to call his farm and feed the animal some bread until he gets there. Other neighbors have stepped into help, saying they will drive to wherever Pea ambles with breadcrumbs, marshmallows, and apples.