The only way to call it a peacock is in the very broad sense that there aren't any birds that look closer to it.
There are also effectively no birds to which it looks closer. If you want to differentiate a peacock from anything else then the colour (the famous Indian variety mostly, the Green variety not so much), the eye-fan and the hovering-crest are pretty much the key markers. I don't know if you think the fan looks more like a turkey's (noting that a turkey is there, as well, for comparison, and obviously not a retouched version but a fresh depiction) or if, like me, you think the neck and head could be marginally less duck/goose-like (although, comparing to the others, again it's not the same), but I don't consider minor details of that kind disqualification from it clearly being an iconic¹ representation of an iconic² bird.
(¹ Small bitmap, ² Notably singular)
Refine the head and neck a bit, as I suggested (I was going to call for it to be more 'aquiline', but that's etymologically a minefield, and I
don't mean make it more like an eagle) and perhaps send the raised tail back a little bit (in both position and angle), and I like the accentuation of the 'eyes' idea. It's also possible that a non-displaying peacock shape could be used, given that they don't
permanently strut around like that, with instead the long train of feathers streamed behind it, but that sacrifices a key caricature aspect to what are
supposed to be easier things to differentiate than the ASCII rasters.
So I respectfully disagree.
even if you've managed to find a photograph that looks that way.
That was for direct comparison. As you point out there are a
lot of pictures, disproportionate to reality, of their display posture, I wanted a part-angle on the head and neck to match the Meph version and that was maybe a dozen or so pictures along in the search results, as opposed to the overwhelming head-on (or tail-on) set that didn't help so much. The raised fan was incidental, whatever differences it also may have presented to a critical eye.