What words come to mind when you think about pigeons? Nasty, dirty, gross — maybe just plain “ew“? Pigeons are ubiquitous to urban life, but humans are not generally fond of them. And while they may have a reputation for being the rats of the sky, author Rosemary Mosco is here to change that.
In her new book, “A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird,” Mosco, a bird-watcher and science communicator, argues that our ignorant assumptions about pigeons are all wrong. They are not the “rats of birds,” as some say. Rather, they are unique and intelligent dinosaur descendants that have been abandoned by today’s humans. Despite their tendencies to use their sharp beaks and claws to tear their way through human trash, the societal hatred toward pigeons is unwarranted. In fact, if only people really understood how special these birds are, perhaps we’d treat them better — or at the very least, give them the respect they deserve.
But Mosco isn’t painting these urban cooers as saviors to whom we should build shrines, either. Rather, she argues that we should seek to enjoy them instead of hating them. For instance, pigeon-watching could be a relaxing and entertaining activity for city dwellers, if not for our stigmas towards pigeons. Though it may sound like the realm of bird nerds, Mosco makes the case that pigeon-watching can be just as thrilling as traveling to your nearest national park to watch hawks.
Salon chatted with Mosco to learn more about why pigeons are so misunderstood, how to see beauty in them, and how people can enjoy the presence of pigeons instead of loathing them. This interview has been condensed and edited for print.
I’m curious about why you decided to write a book about pigeons, of all birds.
Well, I’ve been a bird watcher for most of my life. I really like how birds are pretty much everywhere. That means that anytime you’re bored, you just look around, and you’re going to be amused and pulled into [bird] drama — you’re going to see beautiful things.
I’ve also lived in all sorts of different cities, my whole life. So, pigeons are kind of a natural thing to start watching when you live in cities — and then the more you look at them, the more amazing they get.
Part of the book is about how pigeons are misunderstood. And I’m curious if you’ve come across someone in public who perhaps saw a pigeon and was like, “Ew, I hate pigeons.” What might you tell this person?
That did actually happen to me once. And it sort of triggered the idea for the book, or at least got the idea cooking.
I was waiting to catch the subway, and there was a woman waiting. She looked about my age, she was sort of frustrated and she took, like, a kick at a pigeon. She didn’t kick it, but did kind of threaten it. I was really shocked, and I said “Oh, don’t kick them,” and she just turned on me and said, “You know, they’re garbage, they’re trash, they shouldn’t be alive.”
Wow, that’s intense.
Yeah. And I thought, “what is it about pigeons that engenders that kind of intensity?” I’m really hoping that this book will help people understand why they’re here, and why they like to hang out on roofs, and maybe why we should be a little more understanding.
Can you summarize why people should be more understanding and kinder towards pigeons?
The wildest thing to me about pigeons, at least the city pigeons around us — there are different kinds of pigeons — that they are feral domesticated animals. They’re just like a dog, a cat, or a feral horse or a feral goat. They were domesticated by humans a really long time ago, thousands of years ago. But the difference with pigeons is that we’ve sort of forgotten that we domesticated them.
So we brought them from their homes in parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa, and then forgot why we did it. And now we’re sort of angry that these animals are in our space. And I think that that’s kind of a real shame, because you learn more about nature when you understand the history and the context of why they’re here.
When you put it into perspective like that, it’s really a sad story about humans abandoning these birds.
Right? And they were really bred to be good at living near us. And then, we forgot, and now they keep hanging around us. And we’re like, “why are they here?” Well, that’s why.
In the book you compare pigeons to dinosaurs and puppies, which I thought was really clever. Could you explain to our readers that connection?
A few different things happened. Probably the first is that they went feral, which would have happened pretty much around when we domesticated them; some of them would have gotten out. And then all of the reasons that we domesticated them became obsolete. So, I think of them as kind of like a fax machine. It used to be really useful to use pigeons for meat, and later they were useful for carrying messages, and to use them for their poop — which is an excellent fertilizer — and a whole bunch of other reasons, all of which have been replaced by technology, pretty much. Or in the case of meat, you know, we have factory farms with chickens now.
So they became obsolete. And then in New York in the 1960s, we started to blame them for a bunch of illnesses, in particular a meningitis outbreak. So then people started to think, ew, not only are they these sort of useless stray things, but also they’re getting sick. And up until then, for the most part people had pretty much held them in either neutral or really high esteem.
I was really surprised to hear the super-rich, back in the day, really valued pigeons. Or, how you said that pigeons were like, the original internet. Is there a way to reintegrate these uses back into our society?
Well, there are definitely places in the world where people still eat them, or still breed fancy pigeons So partly what’s going on is just that, where we live, people sort of got less into pigeons for this part. And there are even pigeon clubs in America — there are pigeon shows, like dog shows. I’ve never been to one, because I wrote this book mostly during the pandemic, but I really want to go to one.
But people are definitely being innovative with pigeons. There’s an artist who was attaching LED lights to pigeons and having them fly around, doing an organic drone show. And more and more, people are keeping them as pets, which I think is really interesting. You can carry them around on your shoulder and have them run around your house and you buy pigeon pants for them, which are basically diapers. There is this huge community of people online who have pet pigeons, they share cute photos . . . they definitely have a role to play.
I’m curious what surprised you the most about pigeons while you were reporting on this subject?
I think the most surprising fact about pigeons might be that they feed their babies milk. Both male and female pigeons are able to produce milk in this area of the digestive system called their crop. It’s really amazing. It’s stimulated by prolactin, which is the same hormone that stimulates breast milk in human women. It’s got proteins and fats and it helps boost the immune system. It’s so wild to me that they’ve independently evolved this way to support their babies, and it’s really interesting that both the males and the females can do it.
So that’s why it’s hard to raise pigeons in a factory farm setting, because they have to feed their children milk for the first few days, which is wild to me.
Then some of the wilder notes from history, like Nikola Tesla falling in love with a pigeon. She was the only love of his life; that blew me away.
For people who don’t really live near nature, do you think that pigeon watching can provide readers with a nature fix?
Yeah, for sure. There’s so much nature in our cities, and so much of it is connected with human culture and human history. And I feel like for a long time, people have written off urban nature, because they see it as not, like, “real” nature. But there’s so much cool stuff that you can see in cities, and you can really just immerse yourself in nature, even in the depths of the city. And pigeons can be a gateway for that.
Do you have any tips for people who are interested in getting into pigeon watching?
Yes, keep your eyes open and when you see some pigeons, give them a second look. Start to notice the different colors and patterns. If you see pigeons, maybe two pigeons near each other, ask yourself: “Are they a romantic mating-for-life pigeon pair?” They might very well be. Then look at their behavior. If they suddenly take off in the air, look for a falcon.
That’s kind of how you pigeon-watch, it’s pretty easy. You can do it when you’re commuting or when you’re grabbing lunch. Just give them a second look.
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A star racing pigeon named Armando has fetched a record 1.25 million euros in an online auction, Belgian media reported Sunday.
The prized bird—Belgian’s best long-distance racer of all time according to those in the know—was snapped up by a Chinese buyer for a princely sum that caused a flutter of excitement among fanciers.
Armando had been expected to break the previous record of 376,000 euros ($425,000) paid for a pigeon called Nadine—but not by such a wide margin.
“Earlier this week it became clear that Armando would be the most expensive pigeon ever sold in an online auction,” wrote the specialist website Pigeon Paradise (Pipa.be).
“However, no one expected that the magical cap of a million euros would be pulverised,” it added. The final amount was 1,252,000 euros.
Pigeon Paradise did not say who had bought the pigeon, but according to the Belgian news agency Belga it was a Chinese buyer who will no doubt use his new acquisition to breed other champions.
Armando was just one of more than a hundred birds sold by respected Belgian breeder Joel Verschoot.
Verschoot’s stable of pigeons is based in Ingelmunster, in the west of Belgium, and his online auction of his pigeons has been open for several weeks.
By Sunday, the family had sold 178 pigeons for around two million euros.
Homing pigeons are raced by releasing them sometimes hundreds of kilometres from home, with the first back home winning.
Racing them is a tradition in Belgium, Britain, northern France and the Netherlands, although it has been going into decline.
But interest from Asian buyers in recent years has given the practice a new lease of life.
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For 53 years, large flocks of pigeons have called the Sid Buckwold Bridge home.
And for 53 years, they’ve also used it as a washroom.
The City of Saskatoon is embarking on a dirty mission to rid the bridge of 348 metric tonnes of pigeon poop over the next several months.
Angela Gardiner, the city’s general manager of transportation and construction, told Saskatchewan Afternoon that the collective weight of the droppings is equivalent to 232 mid-sized vehicles being parked on the bridge at all times.
She said the pigeons have been holing up inside utility cavities in the bridge and those provide a cozier home than other crossings in Saskatoon.
“Once we actually got in there over the last couple of years … the extent of the pigeon droppings was quite a bit more than we had anticipated,” Gardiner said.
She emphasized there hasn’t been any structural damage to the Sid Buckwold Bridge from the pigeon poop, but if it were left to stay, it could start wearing it out.
The pigeon droppings contain uric acid, which has the potential to eat away at the concrete used to build the crossing.
“There is a potential with any dead load like this that it could impact the structural integrity,” she said.
Specialized crews have been hired by the city to remove the droppings at the same time as rehabilitation work is done on the overall structure of the bridge.
In addition to the bridge cleanup, workers will install barriers to make it harder for birds to nest on the structure in the future.
However, the pigeons that have been displaced from the bridge will keep coming back — so Gardiner said the city plans to euthanize all 1,500 of them “humanely.”
“Part of the problem with pigeons is they’re homing birds, so if you just relocate them elsewhere, they’ll come back very quickly,” Gardiner said.
“If we fenced it off or prevented them from getting back there, they’ll just find a nearby location. I don’t think anyone wants 1,500 pigeons on their property.”
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or 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.
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A Toronto resident recorded a video of a man snatching pigeons in the city’s east end and when she tried to report it to officials, she said no one wanted to investigate.
On Sunday morning, Bruna Doberstein was on her way home when she witnessed a man and a child capturing the birds with a net and placing them inside a crowded cage in a parking lot at Lawrence Avenue East and Markham Road. That’s when she decided to take out her phone and start recording.
“I expected he would stop doing it after he saw that I was recording. But he didn’t. He seemed pretty comfortable doing it,” Doberstein told CityNews.
In the video, you can hear Doberstein asking the man why he was trapping the pigeons and that he “can’t do this,” in which he responds “Yes I can. I take them to my farm and I raise them.”
Doberstein said she didn’t buy it.
“He wasn’t being gentle. He was holding the birds by their wings. A person who would raise the birds would be at least careful and keep them safe” she said. “I don’t know the story but I know it’s not good.”
At that moment, Doberstein decided to call the police. She said that while the officer was courteous, she was told that it wasn’t their jurisdiction and they wouldn’t be sending an officer.
Instead they told her to call 311. But she said from past experience, Doberstein didn’t think they would be of any help in this matter.
This wasn’t the first time she witnessed the man capturing a cage full of birds and it also wasn’t the first time she tried reporting on what she witnessed.
“It was the second time I saw this guy. I recognized the truck from almost a year ago in August in the same parking lot.”
She told CityNews that last year she contacted a variety of different municipal and provincial departments with no luck, “I called PAWS (Provincial Animal Welfares services) and The Ministry of Nature and Forestry too and I never heard back.”
This kind of response isn’t unusual, according to Camille Labchuck, animal rights lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice.
“In my experience this is not uncommon when it comes to animal issues and law enforcement agencies,” said Labchuck. “Because a lot of people have authority also means that nobody does, leading to nobody wanting to pick it up and run with it.”
While Labchuck and her team are disappointed that Toronto Animal Services and police didn’t do more, they ultimately had more success with reporting the incident to Provincial Animal Welfare Services and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
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“PAWS is the agency that took over enforcement from the OSPCA two years back. They are tasked with investigating any animal cruelty problems.” Labchuck explained. Something many people may not be aware of.
Since the OSPCA announced in 2019 it will no longer enforce animal cruelty laws, there has been no clear guidance of who one should contact to report, investigate and enforce animal cruelty laws.
“You got a man roughly handling birds by the wings which is not permitted,” Labchuck said. “To say nothing of the fact that he shouldn’t be interacting with pigeons anyways. They are protected species under the federal Migratory Bird Convention Act”.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are in charge of enforcing the wildlife act. Labchuck said there could be a clear violation here as residents can’t interact with native wildlife without a permit.
However, while both departments took down information, neither would accept the video at this stage.
“They both advised that providing the video would be a next step if an enforcement officer requires it. Kind of bizarre as it’s relevant evidence at the outset,” Labchuck said.
In 2015, the illegal trapping of pigeons became a widespread issue in the city of New York after hundreds were believed to be stolen for live pigeon shoots in neighbouring states.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or 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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Outdoor space is a premium asset (perhaps now more than ever before). When my wife and I moved into a new apartment with not one but two decks, I excitedly had visions of barbecues, alfresco dinners, and relaxing afternoons of intermittent reading and napping. Shortly after we moved in, however, we realized we weren’t the only ones with grand plans for our decks: Several families of pigeons had claimed them as their own, and it seemed like the only only meals that would happen on them would be feasts of regurgitated worms that the mother pigeons fed to their squabs. As we continued to awake to mournful coos and find more eggs in planters, we got the sense that our presence — no matter how loud or imposing it was — would not be enough to shoo the avian invaders away for good.
This was before the pandemic, so I hired an exterminator (shout out to Stan) to come over and help me with our feathered frenemies. Stan told me that pigeons are far smarter than we give them credit for and that fully ridding them from any areas they like often requires a multipronged solution. An opportunity to implement such a solution presented itself when I noticed that the group of baby pigeons living on our deck had all grown up and seemingly flown away. So, armed with Stan’s hard-won wisdom, I did some research and ultimately bought a few products that, when used together, rendered our decks completely free of wildlife. Read on for everything I used — along with a few other things I didn’t use but came highly recommended — to solve our pigeon problem.
Stan the exterminator may have said pigeons are smart, but they’re not that smart. He told me that even the appearance of a pigeon’s natural predators (like a hawk or an owl) is enough to keep the birds moving and indicate that your porch is not a safe space to raise a family. Another tip he shared: Move the fake bird twice a day (in the beginning) to maintain the illusion of sentience for the pigeons’ sake.
At first I bought just one fake hawk, but a gang of pigeons angrily attacked it. So I bought two more, and found that three of them placed at different points around my decks were sufficient to scare them off.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor or 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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If you do a Google search for “Darwin bird” you will find endless references to the finches of the Galápagos Islands. But it took a long time for Charles Darwin to recognize their significance. When he collected them he did not even realize that they were related, considering some to be “grosbeaks,” others true finches, and others blackbirds. He even considered one warblerlike finch to be a kind of wren.
In fact, during and soon after the historic around-the-world voyage of the HMS Beagle, from 1831 to 1836, Darwin had not yet come to the idea that different islands might be inhabited by different species. As his biographer Janet Browne put it, “He experienced no legendary moment of inspiration.” He was more interested in butterflies. When he returned to London, Darwin dispersed his enormous collection of specimens to the specialists at the Royal Zoological Society. It was only then that ornithologist John Gould told him that the Galápagos birds he had thought were a mixture of blackbirds, grosbeaks, and finches were actually 12 species of finches.
A better case might be made that the most important bird in Darwin’s studies was the humble domestic pigeon. In fact, one of the first readers of the manuscript that would become On the Origin of Species, in 1859, disliked most of the book intensely. Whitwell Elwrin wrote to the publisher, John Murray, and called the text “a wild & foolish piece of imagination . . . for an outline it is too much & for a thorough discussion of the question it is not near enough.” Rather than tell the publisher to reject the manuscript, he consulted Darwin’s friend, geologist Charles Lyell, who had already suggested that the book should focus on Darwin’s observations on pigeons. Elwrin recommended that Darwin write a short book on pigeons. “Everybody is interested in pigeons,” he told him, and a book like this would “be reviewed in every journal in the kingdom and soon be on every table.”
The Origin of Pigeons? Although it sounds funny today, the breeding of fancy pigeons and other pedigreed animals was something of a craze in Victorian England, one that crossed class lines, attracting enthusiasts ranging from miners and weavers to Queen Victoria. When Darwin began studying and breeding pigeons in 1856, he soon became as enthusiastic about the wonderfully varied breeds as any working-class fancier. As Janet Browne says, “Darwin loved his pigeons . . . he spent hours reading self-help manuals and books by breeders to make sure he was doing the right thing and visiting shows and exhibitions to see what was available. He found it very entertaining hobnobbing with breeding experts and trying to exude an air of practical knowledge as he leaned over cages of absurdly ruffled feathers. The esoteric world of pigeon fanciers seemed to him delightfully fresh and curious.”
At first he was not without a little upper-class condescension. He wrote to Huxley, “I sat one evening in a gin palace in the Borrough amongst a set of pigeon fanciers, when it was hinted that Mr. Bolt had crossed his Pouters with Runts to gain size: and if you had seen the solemn, the mysterious, and awful shakes of the head, which all the fanciers gave at this scandalous proceeding, you would have recognized how little crossing has had to do with improving breeds, and how dangerous for endless generations the process was. All this was brought home far more vividly than by pages of mere statements & c.”
Soon, however, he met more scholarly and “respectable” fanciers. His most important friend in the pigeon world became the journalist and editor William Tegetmeier. Their association lasted for more than 10 years and was mutually beneficial. Tegetmeier provided Darwin with specimens, information, and contacts. Tegetmeier, who seems to have been a bit of a social climber, loved to brag about his intimacy with Darwin.
Darwin’s family fell in love with pigeons as well. His daughter Henrietta later wrote, “I can still recall their different characteristics: a cross old fantail when taking food from my hand liked to take a good peck & hurt me if he could. The Pouter pigeon was good-natured but not clever, and I remember a hen Jacobin which I considered rather feeble-minded.” Darwin wanted all of his friends to be as delighted with his pigeons as he was. He wrote Lyell, “I hope Lady Lyell & yourself will remember whenever you want a little rest & have time how very glad we should be to see you here. I will show you my pigeons! Which is the greatest treat, in my opinion, which can be offered to human beings.”
Although his study of pigeons informed The Origin of Species, Darwin’s real “pigeon book,” The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, did not come out until 1868. Its long and beautifully illustrated section on pigeons is still readable and relevant to both naturalists and pigeon fanciers today.
He begins, “I have been led to study domestic pigeons with particular care because the evidence that all the domestic races are descended from one known source is far clearer than with any other anciently domesticated animal. Secondly, because many treatises in several languages, some of them old, have been written on the pigeon, so that we are enabled to trace the history of several breeds. And lastly, because, the amount of variation has been extraordinarily great. . . . I have kept alive all the most distinct breeds, which I could procure in England or from the Continent; and have prepared skeletons of all. I received skins from Persia, and a large number from India and other quarters of the world. Since my admission to two of the London pigeon-clubs I have received the kindest assistance from some of the most eminent amateurs. . . . I do not hesitate to affirm that some domestic races of the rock-pigeon differ fully as much from each other in external characters as do the most distinct natural genera.”
Every one of the illustrated breeds in Variation exists and is shown today. Some, such as the English pouter and the African owl, have not visibly changed in the last 150 years. Others, such as the carrier, barb, and fantail, have become even more exaggerated and differentiated from the ancestral Rock Pigeon by the strange and unnatural selection of shows, just as dogs and other domestic animals have. The carriers’ already exaggerated beak wattle has grown larger than a walnut; such birds are prone to colds and eye diseases—so much so that in Germany legislation was passed limiting the size of the wattle in the breed! The barb, in Darwin’s day a short-billed bird with large circular eye ceres, now has such a short bill that it is unable to feed its own young (foster parents are required) and has a carrier-like wattle cramped between the short bill and its forehead. The engraving of the fantail in Variation shows a bird with a turkeylike fan that today’s birds possess, but Darwin’s bird has a graceful, erect, swan-like neck. Today’s birds carry their heads so far back against their tails that from the front their heads are invisible. From that vantage point they look like a headless ball in front of a circular tail.
Such changes would probably have fascinated Darwin, who wrote, “There is hardly any exception to the rule that those characters vary most which are now most valued and attended to by fanciers, and which consequently are now being improved by continued selection.” Whether such exaggeration is good for the individual birds is another question. The breeding of domestic show animals is a biological art but can be warped by too much passion for the extreme and strange. One need not go to the lengths of the Germans. A pigeon fancier all my life, I gave up breeding modern carriers because curing their constant colds became depressing. Darwin himself showed that crossing the extreme varieties produced something very much like the ancestral Rock Pigeon. Most show pigeons would not survive long in the wild, but their descendents, common “street pigeons,” inhabit cities and cliffs everywhere in the world. Except for their variable colors and slightly larger size, they resemble the wild Rock Pigeon, which they have displaced in all but the most remote places. Some scientists consider them to be a “superdove,” a bird stronger and more adaptable than even its wild ancestors. Evolution, of course, is never stasis. I have seen wild Rock Pigeons only on remote cliffs on the Euphrates, but “superdoves” thrive in environments ranging from the sweltering streets of Houston to the 30-below-zero squares of Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, in winter.
But the domestic pigeon still holds a unique charm for both fanciers and naturalists. The genetics of its colors alone support a quarterly newsletter for scientists and enthusiasts. Some show people, like dog breeders fixated on Westminster, pursue ever-more-exaggerated standards. Others prefer less “improved” birds. I started out with modern racing homers, a breed developed in Belgium and England in the early 1800s, originally a carrier of messages but also a racing competitor. It is a stout, athletic bird. Most non-fanciers see little difference between it and a common pigeon, though it is larger and more muscular, and has a larger head and wattles than the Rock Pigeon. Such a bird can survive very well in the wild. The genes of lost racers probably contribute to the continuing evolution of the “superdove.”
Over the past 20 or 30 years, naturalist and breeder friends of mine have become fascinated by the ancient, “unimproved” pigeon breeds of the Silk Road and the Mediterranean. Such breeds may have existed for thousands of years. They have enough diversity to satisfy Charles Darwin; in fact, many—such as the English barb—are exactly as Darwin, or Shakespeare (who wrote about them), saw them. I have Catalonian tumblers—small pigeons in a dazzling variety of colors—that are agile enough to evade marauding Cooper’s Hawks; Syrian owls that are short-beaked, similarly agile, and, unlike modern show owls, can feed their own young; and English barbs, which are virtual duplicates of the illustrations of them in Darwin’s Variation. I have Spanish pouters that inflate their globes just as much as do modern show pouters. But they must remain athletic, because they are used in the remarkable Spanish sport of “thieving” in which the males compete to seduce marked females to their home lofts. All of these breeds remain functional but retain enough diversity and beauty to satisfy the most aesthetically-minded fancier. And, unlike the often-inbred champions of pigeon and dog shows, they retain, as Darwin noted, enough genetic variation to make each new clutch a suspenseful delight. Show pigeons often resemble clones.
To a naturalist and biophiliac, the humble domestic pigeon can come to occupy a necessary place in one’s life, as it did in Darwin’s. Beautiful and ever-changing, they are a backyard microcosm that embodies Darwin’s most fundamental quote: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
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