A Bone To Pick: Why Do Pigeons Eat Fried Chicken on the Street?

by Pigeon Patrol | Nov 12, 2021 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes

Poor urban pigeons, they’re raised in the slipstream between double decker buses tumbling along ancient, polluted roads, feeding on grains, bread and whatever else is flung their way. They’re too inedible to fall under the remit of the Game Farmers Association (GFA), and they’re too abundant in cities to be important to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) meaning they receive no ecological protection. Besides, most of us see them as a blight of flying rats. So they are left to fend for themselves, living in a kind of Dickensian dystopia, thriving on the rubbish the rest of us throw away.

This hunt for survival has taken an unseemly turn. If you live in a city, you will probably have seen it a hundred times, maybe without even thinking about it: pigeons eating chicken bones. They feast on discarded boxes of chicken and chips like they were a Serengeti watering hole, prodding, pecking and poking at the innards of its carcass. They gorge on its flesh near-cannibalistically, before flinging its bones like majorettes twirling batons.

I know we all hate pigeons, but that can’t be good for them, can it? Aren’t they supposed to be herbivores? A spokesperson for the GFA, which focuses on breeding wood pigeons to make them hunt-ready tells VICE: “I certainly haven’t heard of pigeons eating chicken bones. Pigeons, like doves and all of those sorts of birds, are not meat eaters. But urban pigeons are very different to the ones we get in the countryside.”

The feral pigeon, these mongrel bastard birds, have fallen through the cracks. So I turned to the British Trust for Ornithology’s spokesperson and ornithologist himself, Paul Sandcliffe, in the hopes he might know a bit more about why a herbivore bird would want to feast on chicken bones.

VICE: Hi Paul. Why do you think pigeons might eat bits of chicken bones? Are they just feral compared to their rural cousins?
Paul: When we get back to basics, urban pigeons are not that different to rural pigeons, they will feed in large flocks, and once one pigeon is on the ground, it will attract other pigeons. The major difference between these birds, though, is their diet. Rural pigeons are looking for large seeds or cereal grains like rapeseed which are high in energy and can actually fill them. Whereas urban pigeons are just looking for any food that’s available and will test out anything.

So when they’re pecking the chicken they’re just trying it out?
Yes. Pigeons aren’t carnivorous but they’ve come across this potential food, they’ve checked it out, and if it’s edible, they’ll eat it.

Is it possible that the way fried or marinaded chicken is cooked; in flour and batter and sauces makes it less like chicken and more appealing to the pigeon?
I think the big thing making this chicken appealing to the pigeon is that it’s cooked. Lots of birds aren’t specifically carnivorous but if they come across a dead bird they’ll have a peck at it and take some of the meat. I’ve seen it in footage of coal tits in Northern Scotland, pecking at a deer carcass. They can do it because, ostensibly they’re insectivorous [vegetarian except for insects], so they do have this element of a carnivorous diet. But pigeons are granivorous [grain-eating] so their beak is designed for grains. If they come across a corpse they just can’t deal with it; the skin’s too tough to peck through. But if the corpse has been cooked then the texture is soft. So they can peck at it and bits come away. They’re probably not even thinking of it as meat if they’re thinking at all. It’s just food.

Let’s say a pigeon managed to eat a chicken nugget’s worth of chicken, though. Is that any good for its digestion?
I’m not particularly sure there would be a negative impact. Really? But it sounds so gross.
Birds, by their very physiology, won’t eat more than they should eat. Pigeons can’t afford to be fat because it affects their weight and then they can’t fly. And when they can’t fly it makes them vulnerable to predation

Do pigeons actually go through that thought process? Or do they simply stop when they’re full?
It’s just nature for them to stop when they’re full. You could give a blackbird a bucket of worms and it will only eat the amount it needs to survive in that moment and still make a quick escape if needs be. Same goes for a pigeon.

That’s smart. A farmer once told me that chickens will eat concrete to get the right nutrients to make its eggs. Is there any chance pigeons are eating chicken bones to get the right nutrients to make their own eggs?
Female pigeons will be looking for a source of calcium and calcium is hard to come by. They do eat grit and small stones so they probably get a little bit of calcium that way. It’s not impossible that they could eat bones too. I have a wildebeest skull on the shed at the bottom of my garden and over time, the bone has started to break down and become porous and soft inside. Now the blue tits are coming and taking bits of that skull as a source of calcium. I’ve never seen pigeons on that skull, but it’s probably because they’re not agile enough to get up to it. They have to find sources of calcium somewhere, so it could be that the small pieces of bone on the chicken provide that.

So they’re not gross for eating chicken, just resourceful?
All a bird does all day every day is search for food because they can’t have a big breakfast and be done with it. They have to eat small amounts throughout the day. So they’re spending all day every day looking for food and that includes checking out bits of chicken.

Homing Pigeons Get Their Bearings From Their Beaks

by Pigeon Patrol | Nov 1, 2021 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes

It has long been recognized that birds possess the ability to use the Earth’s magnetic field for their navigation, although just how this is done has not yet been clarified.  However, the discovery of iron-containing structures in the beaks of homing pigeons in a new study1 by Gerta Fleissner and her colleagues at the University of Frankfurt offers a promising insight into this complex topic.  The article will be published online mid-March in Springer’s journal Naturwissenschaften.

How did the Pink Pigeon bounce back from just nine birds?

by Pigeon Patrol | Oct 5, 2021 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes

Last year, one of Mauritius’ best-loved birds hit a milestone that delighted the conservation world. In the 2018 Red List update, the Pink Pigeon Nesoenas mayeri was downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable, building upon the success of 2000, when it was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered. But behind the scenes of this happy news lies over 30 years of gruelling devotion, with conservationists tackling the numerous threats to the pigeon from every possible angle in their bid to bring it back from the brink.

For a while, we were worried it might go the same way as its fellow Mauritian endemic, the Dodo Raphus cucullatus. An even closer relative, the Reunion Pigeon Nesoenas duboisi, went extinct on the neighbouring Reunion Island in the late 18th century thanks to introduced cats and rats. The Pink Pigeon now holds the unenviable title of the last native pigeon in the whole Mascarene archipelago.

Predictably, it was the arrival of humans that heralded the Pink Pigeon’s decline. The species was once widely distributed across Mauritius, but by the 19th century its population had become extremely fragmented and confined to the upland forests. Humans had destroyed native vegetation to the extent that only 1.5% of the original, good-quality forest remained. They also hunted the plump bird and introduced a panoply of predators such as Black Rat Rattus rattus, Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus and Crab-eating Macaque Macaca fascicularis.

It wasn’t just animal predators: what little forest remained was soon invaded by non-native plants such as Chinese Guava Psidium cattleianum and the privet species Ligustrum robustum which choke vegetation, preventing the regeneration of native plants. By the mid-1970s, the species had plummeted to a single population of 20 birds in the upland forest of Black River Gorges, an area now known as Pigeon Wood. Just 12 Pink Pigeons remained in 1986, and of the five nesting attempts recorded that year, all were thwarted by rats. The wild population hit an all-time low of nine birds in 1990. The chances for long-term survival of the species looked bleak.

But the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. With help from organisations across the world [see With Thanks, below], we set up an intensive conservation programme starting with captive breeding set up in 1976, followed by the first wild releases in 1987. We now have nine subpopulations centred around our field stations. Six of these are within the Black River Gorges National Park, close to the original Pigeon Wood. A sub-population can be found on the predator-free nature reserve island Ile aux Aigrettes, and two additional subpopulations are being created on private land at Ferney on the east of Mauritius and in Chamarel Ebony Forest in the south west. The purpose of these captive-reared birds is to bolster wild populations, and we encourage the dispersal of birds between the different areas in order to maintain genetic diversity. In total we now have 470 wild Pink Pigeons at these sites, a dramatic improvement compared to the species’ darkest hour.

 

But captive-breeding won’t help unless the wild habitat is made safe for these newcomers. That’s why wild populations are carefully managed using a three-pronged technique. Firstly, every Pink Pigeon is ringed with its own metal ID band and unique plastic colour combination. Each bird can therefore be identified and followed individually. All nests are checked regularly and the results documented. A large dataset has now been collected and continues to grow. This precise information helps us to understand in more depth the factors affecting the survival of the Pink Pigeon, and how to shape our management strategies accordingly.

Another priority is food. The Pink Pigeon is herbivorous, feeding mainly on fruit, leaves and flowers. But its natural habitat is so degraded that the birds are often unable to find enough food to support themselves. In order to supplement their diet, whole wheat and cracked maize is provided at each of the field sites. The food is placed on specially-designed platforms to prevent other species from obtaining it.

Introduced predators are, without a doubt, a major limiting factor to the survival of this species. Much energy is devoted to removing or controlling them from around the field sites. We are also researching and tackling diseases, in particular trichomonosis, an illness introduced by alien pigeons that can be especially fatal to Pink Pigeon chicks.

In the long term, large areas of forest will need to be restored so that the Pink Pigeon can spread into the uplands and breed in safe nesting sites with fewer predators. But for now, we are working on reinforcing numbers at the recently-created release sites. In order to increase genetic diversity, birds from captive populations in Europe will be repatriated to Mauritius. Research has shown that these birds have genetic variations no longer found in the wild population.

We are constantly seeking to improve our knowledge of the Pink Pigeon’s biology and behaviour, conducting studies into factors limiting the recovery of this species. We have examined the fruiting and flowering of plants that the pigeons feed on which, combined with feeding observations, will enable us to tailor our supplementary feeding more precisely. Ultimately, we have high hopes that all of these measures should enable us to meet our target of 600 wild Pink Pigeons in the next decade.

The future looks bright for other species, too. When working out how to save the Pink Pigeon, some techniques were inspired by previous pigeon rearing projects, but others have been perfected or developed on Mauritius. We can now pass these new techniques on to the rest of the world to help others restore threatened pigeons worldwide. Hundreds of field biologists trained in our methods have gone on to work in important conservation positions elsewhere. They now have the ability to disseminate what they learned globally, ensuring the Pink Pigeon’s success can spread beyond Mauritius’ borders.

Source

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem Animals

by Pigeon Patrol | Sep 28, 2021 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes

How do animals become problems? Drawing on interactionist theories of social problems and cultural geography, I argue that the construction of animals as problems relies upon cultural understandings of nature/culture relationships, which in turn entail “imaginative geographies.” Specifically, modernity posits a firm boundary between nature and culture. Animals have their place, but are experienced as “out of place”—and often problematic—when they are perceived to transgress spaces designated for human habitation. Relying on New York Times articles from 1851 to 2006, and articles from 51 other newspapers from 1980 to 2006, this article focuses on the process by which pigeons as a species were problematized. I contend that pigeons have come to represent the antithesis of the ideal metropolis, which is orderly and sanitized, with nature subdued and compartmentalized. While typified as a health issue, the pigeon’s primary “offense” is that it “pollutes” habitats dedicated for human use. The catch phrase “rats with wings” neatly summarizes society’s evaluations of, and anxieties about, this bird. This metaphor reflects a framing of pigeons by claims-makers that renders them out of place in the cityscape.

Source

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

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