Keith Kelsey never intended to become the caretaker of 300 peacocks. He just wanted to bring a few birds home.
About 45 years ago, Kelsey and his brother rounded up seven peacocks from a ranch near Highway 101 south of Pismo Beach and transported them to their family’s property in See Canyon. The birds settled in, started families of their own, and decided the coastal canyon was a pretty good place to live.
Now, hundreds of their descendants and other peacocks introduced over the years roam the vineyards, hillsides, and neighboring properties surrounding Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards outside Avila Beach.
“I’d estimate about 80 of them over a few years, and then I’d estimated about 100 of them,” Kelsey said, recalling the population’s growth. “Then I estimated last year 200 of them, and now so many babies and late babies are coming out. So I’m estimating there’s about 300.”
The birds have become an attraction at the family-owned winery, where visitors can sip wine, feed the peacocks, and watch the males display their colorful feathers during mating season.
But the peacocks aren’t exactly pets. They roam freely throughout See Canyon, where smaller flocks have established themselves and developed a way of keeping in touch.
James Greenway, the winery’s assistant general manager and wine club manager, said the birds can often be heard calling to one another across the canyon.
“It’s just a cacophony of peacocks calling to each other,” he said. “It’s almost deafening.”
Their calls also serve a practical purpose. Kelsey said the birds are quick to announce unfamiliar visitors, alerting one another whenever a vehicle approaches.
“If someone drives in, one goes off, they all go off,” he said.
The birds can also hold their own against predators.
Kelsey recalled watching roughly 15 male peacocks confront a coyote. Rather than scatter, the birds gathered together and advanced toward the predator, repeatedly forcing it to retreat.
“They get in a tight group and start walking toward it,” Kelsey said. “The coyote will run to a different direction.”
Not every animal on the property is such a threat to the birds.
Kelsey’s roommate has a Chihuahua named Carlito, whose wagging tail occasionally attracts the attention of female peafowl. When the little dog ventures outside, the birds sometimes chase him back toward the house.
“He has to run for cover in the house,” Kelsey said with a laugh.
The peacocks are considerably more comfortable around people, particularly those carrying food.
Every morning and evening, Kelsey calls the birds together and scatters dog food along the driveway. Three feral cats have also become regulars at the twice-daily meals.
“I call them to dinner. They’ll come find me, and then I’ll go feed them,” he said.
Visitors can purchase pre-portioned bags of food to feed the birds themselves, an activity Greenway said is especially popular with families.
“They won’t really eat from your hand per se, but you can get them pretty darn close, within a couple of feet of you,” he said.
Sometimes, their curiosity takes them indoors.
“You leave your house door open, they’ll walk right inside the house,” Kelsey said. “They’ve been inside my Airbnb. They’ve been in my house. They’re just curious.”
The birds’ history in See Canyon began on a 1,200-acre ranch Kelsey’s family once leased near Pismo Beach. The property had previously been home to exotic animals, including zebras and peacocks.
By the time Kelsey lived there, the zebras were gone, but the peacocks remained. When the family had to leave the ranch, which Chevron had acquired, Kelsey and his brother decided to take seven of the birds with them.
“We trapped them in a cage that we baited there by the barn on our old ranch,” Kelsey recalled. “Once we got them in the cage, we just had a string. You close the door, and we got them.”
In See Canyon, the birds began reproducing, and the population expanded further as people began dropping off unwanted peacocks at the property.
Peacocks can live for roughly 20 years, according to Kelsey, meaning several generations have come and gone since the original seven arrived.
Among the birds are Indian peafowl, known for the males’ brilliant blue plumage and long, iridescent tail feathers. Over the years, Kelsey said, people have also dropped off other varieties, including three peafowl from Indonesia.
One of those newcomers was a male named Prince, whose smaller build and shorter tail made him stand out from the other birds. Although Prince was killed by a car a couple of years ago, Kelsey said some of the birds still resemble him.
The peacocks were already well established when Kelsey’s father, Dick, began making wine in 1999 as a retirement hobby.
His first vintage was called Vino Yucky, a name Greenway initially assumed was a joke.
“I thought that they were joking when they told me that,” Greenway said. “They were not.”
Today, the winery produces traditional reds and whites alongside apple wines and hard ciders, including its Golden Delicious apple chardonnay and Red Delicious apple rosé.
The peacocks, meanwhile, remain one of the property’s most recognizable attractions.
“Oh, they love them,” Kelsey said of visitors. “All the cameras come out. They’re amazed.”
The males are currently regrowing their elaborate tail feathers following their annual molt. Kelsey expects their plumage to return by Christmas, ahead of the spring breeding season that typically begins in March.
With new chicks continuing to appear around the property, the population shows little sign of slowing down.
After 45 years, Kelsey no longer tries to distinguish most of the birds individually. Instead, he calls them all his “birdie birds.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Pets 2026.
