Jordan MillerA Salt Lake City religious sanctuary’s pet peacock was returned to its pyramid after a week on the run.
The 10-year-old peacock, named T-Bird, took off on July 22 after something “spooked him,” said Su Menu, president of the Church of Summum. The peacock lives near the church’s famous Poplar Grove pyramid at 707 Genesee Ave., Menu said. She saw it take off on church security cameras.
On Thursday morning, a good Samaritan told two church officials he had seen the bird walking around near some semitrucks a few blocks from the sanctuary. One of the officials scooped him up in a towel and carried him back to his pen at the sanctuary, where T-Bird lives with his mother, whose name is Indie.
“Oh, T-Bird, thank God, man!” Menu said when the peacock was carried through the sanctuary’s gates. “Where have you been?”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The pyramid of the Summum religious organization in Salt Lake City.
T-Bird had never flown away before, Menu said, and she had been “looking all around for the guy” since he disappeared. Church officials had also just put up posters of the lost bird on Wednesday, many of which were destroyed in the afternoon thunderstorms.
The church has housed peacocks for years, including T-Bird’s parents, who hatched him at the sanctuary.
“I’m so glad he’s back,” Menu said. “I was so worried about him.”
(Trevor Christensen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bernie Aua holds T-Bird, a peacock that was recently found after a week of being lost, at the Church of Summum on Thursday, July 30, 2026.
T-Bird’s disappearance came on the heels of a rough stretch for Poplar Grove peacocks. In late June, Salt Lake City police investigated the deaths of three of the birds in the area. Sgt. Greg Wilking said investigators identified an “involved person,” but they could not prove that he intentionally killed the birds, so the district attorney’s office did not file charges.
There is no indication that T-Bird’s disappearance was related.
