Peacocks continue a tradition at St. John the Divine

Jim, Harry and Phil are proud and beautiful upper Manhattan residents that like to spread their colorful feathery plumage and ham it up for passersby, schoolchildren, neighbors and camera-carrying tourists.

The trio are peacocks that live at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where they peck and walk about the public gardens, comfortable in the noisy city environment.

Phil is an all-white peacock -- a special breed that offers a lovely contrast to Jim and Harry's green, blue and purple feathers. The peacocks are always ready to shake their plumage to the delight of onlookers.

"I live close by and I come almost every day to watch them. They are just beautiful to look at," said Gladys Rodriguez, who lives two blocks from the church. "I can get real close when they open their feathers."

The peacocks fit right in amid the gothic cathedral's stone walls and towering trees, said Kobi Marceca, a music teacher at The Cathedral School.

"The peacocks guard the front door of the school. They are always at the door shaking their feathers. They are definitely our school mascots and the kids love them," Marceca said.

Jim, Harry and Phil are known to wander off onto Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive, "but people in the neighborhood know they belong here and call us to bring them home," Marceca said.

The peacock tradition at St. John the Divine dates to the early 1980s. A cathedral trustee who was associated with the Wildlife Conservation Society offered the first batch of peacocks as a gift to the church, spokeswoman Tenzin Dharlo said.

Those birds died, Dharlo said. "They lived a long and healthy life; babies were even born." In 2002, the schoolchildren donated Phil, Jim and Harry. They arrived as babies from a breeder, she said.

But raising them was no easy task, said Ray Guyette of the cathedral's maintenance department, which cares for and feeds the birds.

"Let's just say that when they were growing up they were difficult," Guyette said.

The peacocks have a hutch, where they sleep and are fed. It is nestled in a corner of the cathedral. The birds consume about 300 pounds of peacock food every two months, Guyette said.

St. John's is not the sole site in the region that gives peacocks a home. At Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, peacocks roam the grounds.