The rock dove, aka the rock pigeon, the common pigeon, the dove, winged rats, etc etc, this is a feral domestic animal found all around the globe – especially around humans. They’re on the “life list” of birds I’ve seen, and they’re on yours too. Along with Canada geese, they’re the biggest purveyors of bird feces where you don’t want them to be, in much of the USA. But still, they’re ours -we made them- and I do like them an awful lot.
Pigeons are a cool group of birds. Different species are found all over the world, and it’s surprising to me what they have in common. Some diverse far-flung groups of birds like woodpeckers have more variety in proportion and shape than pigeons do. For some reason, doves all have that broad powerful chest, stretchy neck that narrows at the top, and a lil’ head with pigeon beak. How do I describe that beak? You know what it looks like, and it looks the same from ivory-colored desert beauty on one side of the planet to upside-down parrot-colored jungle freak on the other. Dodos were the one outlier in that beak shape. I know the cloning projects have been scams and bullshit, but I’d love to see it happen.
In my neighborhood there are only two species of pigeon that I know of: the one this article is about, and invasive Eurasian collared doves. I do like the invaders, as rarely as I see them, but this article is not their time.
Domestic doves are known for coating the cities of the world in guano. At one time in the Middle East, silo-shaped dovecotes had chutes designed to spill fertilizer into fields of crops. Smart. Now people remember after the fact that anything humans can build, pigeons can perch on, and they have to cover unintended landing strips in bird spikes. I heard anarchist cockatoos in Oz are tearing up that hostile architecture; good job.
Lingering traces of domestication syndrome haunt the gene pool of these animals, some over a thousand generations removed from active human care. You see it in their lack of fear around humans, of course, but also in their mottled colors. Many have reverted to natural enough color schemes, like if feral domestic cats had achieved higher rates of brown tabby in their numbers, but many pigeons are missing a category of pigment, or gone leucistic or piebald or polka-dotted. I like the natural colors, but the mutants can be very pretty.
The first place pigeons became important in my life was as supporting actors in John Woo movies. Some other random experiences: Seeing them puffed up to the size of bowling balls, trying to hunker down for the freezing weather in the International District bus tunnel. Seeing their fucked up malformed feet, and seeing an article on the subject just as my curiosity about it was reaching its peak. Seeing a baby pigeon ganked by crows on Mother’s Day. Seeing baby pigeons close up for the first time, in a nest at the Federal Way Transit Center.
I’ve wanted to have a pet bird I could easily snuggle with, and if I ever get over the annoyance of cleaning the cage etc, pigeons are on my list. They’re domestic animals so would feel less nervy about it than 99% of parrots, and they’re less scratchy / bitey than chickens. I wouldn’t even get a fancy pigeon. Plain ol’ winged rat is good enough for me. I would hold it under my arm like a football and get gross stains on all my clothes. Worth it?
–
I would point out the soothing sounds they make. Around here, we have the mourning dove (aka turtle dove), which are quite vocal (particularly in the morning) and their feathers make a distinctive whir when they take off or land. (Saw some yesterday, so thanks for getting me off my butt and out of the house!)
We’ve the distinct pleasure of having Inca doves here in southern NM: tiny (robin-sized) birds that look like any other pigeon but shrunk, along with white-wing, mourning, and rock. Not very vocal but fascinating to watch them, as their strategy when hawks approach is to freeze. While frozen one can walk right up to one. Once the danger flies off they slowly Thaw. Nice flight colors too.
Plain ol’ winged rat is good enough for me
Be cool if you could raise one to be flung at someone like a football, then spread their wings and fly back to you.
I rather like pigeons, I find them kinda amusing, and they are fairly smart for a bird.
I used to leave my windows open (upper story apartment) all day, but about 10-15 years ago, came home from work, and found a pair of pigeons decided they liked my apartment. Shat all over my cd collection, and knocked a bunch down. I chased them out and threatened to eat them, and started closing my windows when I left for the day.
Where I work, we have a lot of wood doves, which despite being closely related to pigeons, are significantly less smart. Kinda reminds me of the human/supermutants from Fallout – the pigeons are bigger, uglier, and smarter, while the doves are smaller, not as bright, and prettier…
I’ve seen a couple nest and raise babies in my window boxes and the hallway balcony in my building. baby pigeons are so adorably ugly. 🙂
As to pet birds, I had a friend who kept a button quail as a pet. Also not terribly bright, but pretty amusing animal, and it did a fair bit of cuddling. Loved eating bugs, it got visibly excited when we fed it meal worms. pretty amusing critter, and sometimes laid eggs.
bob – good note; how could i not mention cooing?
harlan – looked up inca doves; they’re so pretty!
mjr – i saw somebody do something like that with a goldfish
lochaber – good stories. to other pet birds, hmm, perhaps. but i wouldn’t dare to get one while my cat’s alive.
–
I’ll second Bob about the mourning doves – they are common around where I live in the northeastern US. They are a little smaller and a bit more slender than pigeons, but still have the distinctive body shape of the doves and pigeons. Their coloring is plain, a sort of brownish grey, but they make a very distinctive call at some times of the year, which to me sounds like ooo-OO-oo ooo-ooo-ooo. I am normally lousy at identifying birds by their calls, but this one is easy even for me because it sounds completely unlike anything else produced by any bird in my area. It’s a very interesting call, but it does sound pretty sad to my human ears, and I can easily understand how they got their name.
interestingly, the oo-OO-oo that carries the farthest, that somehow breaches the nice weatherproof windows of my home, is the call of invasive eurasian collared doves. also sounds pathetically sad, i love it.