HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) – Is it simply a lonely peacock that has mysteriously taken up residence off Old Williamsburg Road?

Or is there something more to this colorfully haunting trespasser?

Justin Baynes said the peacock started regularly hanging out at his family’s large home about six or seven months ago.

Thursday, his sister awoke from a nap and found the bird in the kitchen, just like he belonged there.

The Nesters next door have also found the peacock lounging in their basement and, once, in their kitchen pantry.

“Princess Batman,” as their children named it, has been a fixture “since we bought the house in July,” Dale Nester told me.

The peacock seemingly hasn’t ruffled many feathers.

Indeed, Dale and his wife clearly enjoy the bird that they have befriended to the point that they, and their children, can hand-feed it and pet its iridescent feathers. They are glad, however, that their new dog has kept the peacock from using their porches as a bathroom.

Justin and the family next door also enjoy their bright and cocky visitor. He said they have no plans to call animal control.

But it is rather unusual for a male peacock to be strutting about without a female or two to brighten his day.

And Dale Nester says there’s something else unusual going on.

“Our house is haunted,” he says in all seriousness. They’ve heard sounds and seen things in the early 1900s heavy masonry home that had previously burned.

Their little girl found a shiny skeleton key sitting in the middle of the floor of a room that had been recently cleaned.

And look this picture, Dale says, pointing to a photo taken of the peacock sitting below the one window in the sprawling house that wasn’t replaced.

There, in the window above the peacock, is the shape of a ghost, a woman watching out the window just like the peacock had done next door while visiting the kitchen.

You have to watch the video report to see it.

Do you know the story behind this preening vagabond? Click here to email us.

Hope you enjoyed this detour from the bad and ugly news of the day.