Consider loading the page initially at the deepest taxonomic level possible until there is more than one choice to pick from.

[thomasxwright]

it's tedious to search for something like 'peacock' and then just the one result shows up, and I'm expected to click through its order, family, genus, and species to read about it.

If the only results are in one order and family, maybe just step into that family from the get-go.