by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 29, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
THREE days a week, a pair of hawks named Mowgli and Melvin are stationed by the edge of an artificial pond at the Water Garden, an office park in Santa Monica, Calif.
The birds, known as Harris’s hawks, are majestic creatures with white-tipped tails and neon orange talons. They may appear to be taking it easy as they rest on their perches. But they’re actually on the job, making sure that the pond and its environs remain free from the hundreds of sea gulls, pigeons and crows that would otherwise leave behind droppings and bacteria.
“Before I started working here, they had an issue with sea gulls actually living here,” said Nricco Iseppi, a master falconer and independent contractor for Airstrike Bird Control, a bird abatement business near San Luis Obispo, Calif. “They’d be on top of the roof, and, come lunchtime, they’d be trolling around the tables trying to steal food. So the first thing I did was, I set the hawks on them.”
After four months of the hawks’ intimidation tactics — swooping down and scaring the gulls out of the water, for example, or simply flying in their vicinity — all signs of the other fowl disappeared. Well, almost. A family of coots remains, though Mr. Iseppi stressed that he allows them to stay.
“They have a license,” he joked.
At a time when many business solutions seem to come in the form of apps or other software, Airstrike Bird Control is promoting the ancient sport of falconry to potential customers.
Known as the “sport of kings,” falconry is thought to date back to 2,000 B.C. In medieval Europe, falcons were popular with hunters and served as a status symbol among the aristocracy.
Now, a falcon that once might have graced a king’s wrist could be helping a blueberry grower ward off hungry starlings, or the owner of a landfill contend with a siege of sea gulls.
For each Airstrike Bird Control assignment, a master falconer is deployed to scare away the problem birds by using either hawks or falcons. Hawks are better for smaller spaces; falcons, which fly at a higher altitude, are more suitable for large areas, like vineyards.
On a recent morning at the Water Garden, with no sea gulls or crows in sight, Mowgli was tethered to his perch by a leash attached to a leather anklet, and wearing a hood to limit his vision.
To demonstrate how the process works, Mr. Iseppi untethered Mowgli and removed his hood. The bird immediately took to the air and landed on a branch of a nearby tree. (If an unwanted bird had been there, the browbeating would have begun.) A few minutes later, Mr. Iseppi blew a sharp, short note on a whistle, and Mowgli flew back to Mr. Iseppi’s gloved arm.
When the hawks are actually pursuing birds, they can become “pushy,” Mr. Iseppi said. Once in a while a bird can accidentally die, even though the hawks are not meant to kill as part of the program, he said.
“The objective of the program is what we call hazing,” said Brad Felger, co-owner of Airstrike Bird Control. “You’re intimidating them, you’re scaring them, so they don’t want to be there.”
During the early, intensive part of the program, the falconers and the birds are at the job site seven days a week. Once the problem is under control, they scale back their schedule. Work can be seasonal or year-round. The practice is catching on, particularly among farmers and wine growers whose livelihoods depend on sustaining their crops, Mr. Felger said.
“Attitudes have changed a lot,” he said; during peak season he has as many as 20 jobs along the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle. He would not disclose what the company charges its clients but said the falconers received hundreds of dollars a day for their services. “Before it was me saying, ‘Yeah, it works.’ And they’re saying, ‘Really?’ They were looking at me like I was trying to sell them a used car or something,” he adds.
THE use of falconry is an alternative to products like noise cannons and netting systems, as well as repellents applied to ledges that make it uncomfortable for birds to land.
Chris Siems, the California sales manager for Wilson Orchard and Vineyard Supply, which sells netting and other bird deterrents, said that using falcons or hawks “is not a 24-7 solution, because you can only keep birds in the air for so many hours a day.”
“It’s effective against some species of birds, such as starlings, which disperse at the sight of a circling falcon,” he said. “But others, like finches, simply burrow deeper into the vine canopy and keep eating.”
Mr. Felger has been a master falconer since 1982. He was inspired to form his company in 2003, when the California Department of Fish and Game began issuing permits for licensed falconers to use certain raptors as a way to control birds.
The location of Mr. Felger’s company, in the wine-rich swath of Central California, helped his business take off, as word of his service began spreading among wineries. In recent years, jobs like those at the Water Garden have emerged as interest in sustainable approaches to bird control has increased.
“The more you become informed about what it is, and how it works, it makes ethical sense,” said Mr. Iseppi, who also has his own bird abatement business. He was sitting cross-legged on the the Water Garden’s grass a few feet from Mowgli and Melvin, who would go home with him to Malibu when the workday was done. (Mowgli is named for a “Jungle Book” character.)
Not that everyone immediately understands what he and his birds are doing.
“There was a woman who thought I was looking after a powerful C.E.O.’s status symbols, he said, smiling. “She thought I was a hawk baby sitter.”
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
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 21, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
Watch out, pigeons… there’s a new cop in town! The Nevada Pigeon Control is a local business that pledges to contain the pigeon problem. They’ve got uniforms, cages, and air guns… all aimed at cutting down on the number of winged beasts. They say the county isn’t taking care of the bird problem. But Clark County says it will use pigeon birth control pills. Why are pigeons such a problem in Southern Nevada? Why are casinos hiring uniformed men with air guns? And why are so many groups all aflutter over the best way to handle this controversy? We talk to a “pigeon cop” and others tackling bird control. Fly into the conversation below.
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
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 21, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
I never thought much about pigeon excrement until I moved into a condo several years ago and discovered two birds nesting on the balcony. Because my daughter was worried about the cute little eggs, I waited till the squabs were old enough to fly before clearing out the nest and piles of excrement, along with all my pigeon-defaced outdoor furniture. Then a building reno temporarily solved the problem, but as soon as the jackhammers stopped, the pigeons were back and defecating with impunity.
I decided to take action, and quickly discovered some hard facts. Pigeons, instead of nesting in trees, prefer buildings, especially tall buildings with ledges and balconies – i.e., condos. This was bad news in a city undergoing an extended real-estate boom, and this past week analysts were guessing the condo market’s record growth (about 40,000 a year for the past five years) will continue at least until 2010 – which means even more condos, i.e., more perfect pigeon abodes, i.e., more excrement.
Though there’s no pigeon census, many Toronto residents are feeling plagued by pigeons this summer. And it’s possible the rise of condos will increase the pigeon population, says Tom Mason, curator of invertebrates and birds at the Toronto Zoo.
“As the human population has increased, the pigeon population has increased with it.”
Homeowners are complaining of backyard birdfeeders being overrun with pigeons. And certain areas – like the “pigeon gauntlet” north of Broadview subway station – have become legendary. “When they’re not feasting on bread strewn by crazy old people, they’re packed onto the hydro lines above,” says a Riverdale resident. She cited a recent incident involving a man in a crisp suit, “obviously a stranger to the neighbourhood,” who walked straight under the line of fire. “It looked like someone had upended a container of yogurt on him, honestly, it was that copious. He started running around in circles, screaming, then ran off.”
So Toronto’s pigeon problem was bigger than I’d bargained for – but surely I could get them off my own balcony. I started with humane pigeon deterrents: a bobble-headed “scary” owl, fluttering strips of aluminum foil, twirly children’s toys. Nothing worked.
Whenever I heard pigeons cooing on the balcony, I hammered on the window, or leaped out the door shrieking, “Get out of here, you bastards!” In fact, I got so used to the routine that I stopped explaining the outbursts during business calls. As the battle escalated, I laid in wait with water guns, ambushing the enemy as they landed on my railing, or sneaking over to my neighbour’s balcony – where I knew pigeons were nesting behind a deck chair. There, I would jump up, crane around the partition and blast away at the cornered pigeons as they ran around in circles. One day, it occurred to me that I might encounter – and shoot – the neighbour, so I stopped.
It was time to do more research.
Know the enemy
Toronto’s feral pigeons are descended from domestic birds brought over by early settlers. Males and females look the same, are monogamous and take turns incubating eggs, which arrive two at a time. Both parents nurse the babies with a nutrient-laden “crop milk,” which can double the wee ones’ weight in 34 hours.
“What’s also amazing,” said ornithologist Mark Peck of the Royal Ontario Museum, “is that, as far as I know, they are the only bird in Ontario that breeds throughout the entire year,” which means up to nine “clutches” per annum.
Pigeons are also uniquely skilled at navigation – able to fly 70 kilometres per hour, covering up to 1,000 kilometres in a single race. In wartime, pigeons saved lives by carrying military messages across enemy lines. Science hasn’t figured out the exact mechanism, but the motivation, explains the zoo’s Mr. Mason, is that they’re frantically trying to get back to their nestlings.
This is the trouble with research. You seek data to support a pigeon-killing spree, and you end up discovering pigeons are a lot like humans, except pigeons have a lower divorce rate.
So let’s not forget their capital offences. The Nixalite Architectural Bird Control website states that pigeons are “a vector for more than 50 human and livestock diseases.” Their droppings fade finishes on cars and planes, can destroy wood, stone and marble, corrode I-beams, ruin cloth awnings, short out electrical equipment and fill attics with so much excrement “that the actual ceiling collapses.”
On an excrement-removal website, the U.S. General Services Administration warns that pigeon excrement can “lead to potentially fatal diseases of the lungs and central nervous system such as histoplasmosis and cryptococcosis.”
In fact, the Web is packed with anti-pigeon content. The problem: There seems to be no evidence of pigeon-caused plagues in real life. “That’s correct,” said Dr. David McNeely, associate professor of infectious diseases at University of Toronto. Avian-related diseases are rare to begin with, he said, and they’re usually caused by other species. “Don’t pick on poor pigeons,” Dr. McNeely said. “If you want to worry about bird-related diseases, worry about budgie dander.”
Similarly, Mr. Mason, who works at the zoo with pigeons and other birds daily, has never heard of a case. Nor has Mr. Peck at the ROM, who adds how important pigeons have been to science, from Darwin and B.F. Skinner to the present. “Pigeons are not bad birds,” Mr. Peck said. “They’re just successful.”
Taking action
These scientist types weren’t helping my case against pigeons at all. I phoned the city to ask if it was legal to kill them. “There are no bylaws that apply to wild pigeons,” said Rishma Govani in the public health department, though “there are rules” about owned pigeons.
Next, I spoke with Donald Fraser, principal of Beacon Environmental impact-assessment (and a former researcher on goose defecation habits, which I figured was close enough to my area of interest), who explained: “It is legal to shoot or kill pigeons because they are a non-migratory bird, and thus not covered by the migratory bird act between Canada and the United States.” You need a permit to shoot gulls, or a hunting licence to shoot geese or ducks, for example, but pigeons are fair game. Mr. Fraser did caution, however, that there might be consequences if firearms were discharged within the city.
Indeed, Constable Wendy Drummond of Toronto Police Services confirmed that, while feral pigeons were not protected by the Criminal Code (the sections on animal cruelty pertain mainly to owned animals such as cattle, she said), any discharge of a pellet gun with intent to kill would result in a weapons charge. Snapping their little necks, quickly and humanely, would be tolerated, she said, “unless, you know, we find 100 dead pigeons.”
So pigeons are good family birds, heroic during wartime and, as Mr. Fraser also pointed out, good scavengers who help keep city streets clean (when not filling them with excrement, that is, but never mind). So maybe we shouldn’t kill them. But feed and encourage them? No way.
On this point, I agreed with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who reduced pigeon numbers in Trafalgar Square by imposing a controversial feeding ban in 2003. A friend recommended I speak to a woman who fed pigeons in her local park. Oh goody, I thought – my anti-pigeon case would definitely be enhanced by a real-live wacko, probably wearing old rags and a squashed hat covered in excrement, ranting about pigeon rights.
Well, the crazy pigeon lady turned out to be novelist Barbara Gowdy, who may or may not be as deranged as the next writer, but who is undeniably smart, attractive, well-groomed and socially responsible.
“I only feed them at the end of the park, away from homes, during inclement weather, when there is snow and ice on the ground and it’s impossible for them to get food,” Ms. Gowdy said.
For a while, when people attacked her for feeding pigeons, she handed out pamphlets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stated, she said, that “even if you ate pigeon excrement, the only thing you’d get is a mild stomach ache.”
Ms. Gowdy is nothing if not persuasive. Or maybe I was ready to crack. After starting out on a crusade to kill all pigeons, I now considered eating pigeon excrement in order to properly research this article.
In any case, the fight had gone out of me – mainly, I think, because of one detail I couldn’t get out of my head: The reason pigeons love condos is because the high-rise towers resemble ancient cliff faces, near Asian seas, where rock doves originally made their homes. That image of our city’s condos as soaring cliffs along the edge of Lake Ontario transformed my view of both the buildings and pigeons.
Ms. Gowdy was right: Toronto’s feral rock pigeons have as much right to live here as we do, and the city would be a much poorer place without its wild animals. I’m willing to live and let live – though it would still be nice to find a way to stop them from living on my particular balcony.
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
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 21, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
A study on a population of pigeons on the University of South Africa’s Muckleneuk campus was conducted over 2 years. Counts were conducted during a baseline year (March 2013–February 2014) to establish the pigeon population index inhabiting the campus buildings, and again in the management year (August 2014–August 2015) once Eagle Eyes™, Fire (Flash) Flags, bird spikes and a combination thereof were implemented on the buildings. An efficacy reduction percentage was determined for each of the control structures. The total pigeon index on the campus declined by 50 % once the control structures were implemented. Control structures; however, differed markedly in efficacy from each other. Whilst bird spikes indicated the highest efficacy at reducing the pigeon population index, seasonality also influenced the efficacy of the control structure. Quantified understanding of the efficacy of pigeon control measures allows urban management to make informed decisions about reducing pigeon populations.
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
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 7, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
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. This study expands social problems theorizing to more thoroughly account for animals and the role of space.
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
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Feb 22, 2022 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
Though they’re often described as “rats with wings” (a phrase popularized by the movie Stardust Memories), pigeons are actually pretty cool. From homing instincts to misleading rump feathers, here are 15 things you might not know about these avian adventurers.
1. THEY MIGHT BE THE FIRST DOMESTICATED BIRD.
The common city pigeon (Columba livia), also known as the rock pigeon, might be the first bird humankind ever domesticated. You can see them in art dating back as far as 4500 BCE in modern Iraq, and they’ve been a valuable source of food for thousands of years.
2. THEY WON OVER CHARLES DARWIN—AND NIKOLA TESLA.
Pigeon-breeding was a common hobby in Victorian England for everyone from well-off businessmen to average Joes, leading to some fantastically weird birds. Few hobbyists had more enthusiasm for the breeding process than Charles Darwin, who owned a diverse flock, joined London pigeon clubs, and hobnobbed with famous breeders. Darwin’s passion for the birds influenced his 1868 book The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, which has not one but two chapters about pigeons (dogs and cats share a single chapter).
Nikola Tesla was another great mind who enjoyed pigeons. He used to care for injured wild pigeons in his New York City hotel room. Hands down, Tesla’s favorite was a white female—about whom he once said, “I loved that pigeon, I loved her as a man loves a woman and she loved me. When she was ill, I knew and understood; she came to my room and I stayed beside her for days. I nursed her back to health. That pigeon was the joy of my life. If she needed me, nothing else mattered. As long as I had her, there was a purpose in my life.” Reportedly, he was inconsolable after she died.
3. THEY UNDERSTAND SPACE AND TIME.
In a 2017 Current Biology study, researchers showed captive pigeons a series of digital lines on a computer screen for either two or eight seconds. Some lines were short, measuring about 2.3 inches across; others were four times longer. The pigeons were trained to evaluate either the length of the line or how long it was displayed. They found that the more time a line was displayed, the longer in length the pigeon judged it to be. The reverse was true too: If the pigeons encountered a longer line, they thought it existed in time for a greater duration. Pigeons, the scientists concluded, understand the concepts of both time and space; the researchers noted “similar results have been found with humans and other primates.”
It’s thought that humans process those concepts with a brain region called the parietal cortex; pigeon brains lack that cortex, so they must have a different way of judging space and time.
4. THEY CAN FIND THEIR WAY BACK TO THE NEST FROM 1300 MILES AWAY.
The birds can do this even if they’ve been transported in isolation—with no visual, olfactory, or magnetic clues—while scientists rotate their cages so they don’t know what direction they’re traveling in. How they do this is a mystery, but people have been exploiting the pigeon’s navigational skills since at least 3000 BCE, when ancient peoples would set caged pigeons free and follow them to nearby land.
Their navigational skills also make pigeons great long-distance messengers. Sports fans in ancient Greece are said to have used trained pigeons to carry the results of the Ancient Olympics. Further east, Genghis Khan stayed in touch with his allies and enemies alike through a pigeon-based postal network.
5. THEY SAVED THOUSANDS OF HUMAN LIVES DURING WORLD WARS I AND II.
Pigeons’ homing talents continued to shape history during the 20th century. In both World Wars, rival nations had huge flocks of pigeon messengers. (America alone had 200,000 at its disposal in WWII.) By delivering critical updates, the avians saved thousands of human lives. One racing bird named Cher Ami completed a mission that led to the rescue of 194 stranded U.S. soldiers on October 4, 1918.
6. TWO PIGEONS ALMOST DISTRACTED FROM THE DISCOVERY OF EVIDENCE OF THE BIG BANG.
In 1964, scientists in Holmdel, New Jersey, heard hissing noises from their antenna that would later prove to be signals from the Big Bang. But when they first heard the sound, they thought it might be, among other things, the poop of two pigeons that were living in the antenna. “We took the pigeons, put them in a box, and mailed them as far away as we could in the company mail to a guy who fancied pigeons,” one of the scientists later recalled. “He looked at them and said these are junk pigeons and let them go and before long they were right back.” But the scientists were able to clean out the antenna and determine that they had not been the cause of the noise. The trap used to catch the birds (before they had to later be, uh, permanently removed) is on view at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.
7. YOU CAN TRAIN THEM TO BE ART SNOBS …
Japanese psychologist Shigeru Watanabe and two colleagues earned an Ig Nobel Prize in 1995 for training pigeons, in a lab setting, to recognize the paintings of Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso and to distinguish between the painters. The pigeons were even able to use their knowledge of impressionism and cubism to identify paintings of other artists in those movements. Later, Watanabe taught other pigeons to distinguish watercolor images from pastels. And in a 2009 experiment, captive pigeons he’d borrowed were shown almost two dozen paintings made by students at a Tokyo elementary school, and were taught which ones were considered “good” and which ones were considered “bad.” He then presented them with 10 new paintings and the avian critics managed to correctly guess which ones had earned bad grades from the school’s teacher and a panel of adults. Watanabe’s findings indicate that wild pigeons naturally categorize things on the basis of color, texture, and general appearance.
8. … AND TO DISTINGUISH WRITTEN WORDS.
In a 2016 study, scientists showed that pigeons can differentiate between strings of letters and actual words. Four of the birds built up a vocabulary of between 26 and 58 written English words, and though the birds couldn’t actually read them, they could identify visual patterns and therefore tell them apart. The birds could even identify words they hadn’t seen before.
9. FLUFFY PIGEON FEET MIGHT ACTUALLY BE PARTIAL WINGS.
A few pigeon breeds have fuzzy legs—which hobbyists call “muffs”—rather than scaly ones. According to a 2016 study, the DNA of these fluffy-footed pigeons leads their hind legs to take on some forelimb characteristics, making muffed pigeon legs look distinctly wing-like; they’re also big-boned. Not only do they have feathers, but the hindlimbs are somewhat big-boned, too. According to biologist Mike Shapiro, who led the study, “pigeons’ fancy feathered feet are partially wings.”
10. SOME PIGEONS DISTRACT FALCONS WITH WHITE RUMP FEATHERS.
In a life-or-death situation, a pigeon’s survival could depend upon its color pattern: Research has shown that wild falcons rarely go after pigeons that have a white patch of feathers just above the tail, and when the predators do target these birds, the attacks are rarely successful.
To figure out why this is, Ph.D. student Alberto Palleroni and a team tagged 5235 pigeons in the vicinity of Davis, California. Then, they monitored 1485 falcon-on-pigeon attacks over a seven-year span. The researchers found that although white-rumped pigeons comprised 20 to 25 percent of the area’s pigeon population, they represented less than 2 percent of all the observed pigeons that were killed by falcons; the vast majority of the victims had blue rumps. Palleroni and his team rounded up 756 white- and blue-rumped pigeons and swapped their rump feathers by clipping and pasting white feathers on blue rumps, and vice versa. The falcons had a much easier time spotting and catching the newly blue-rumped pigeons, while the pigeons that received the white feathers saw predation rates plummet.
Close observation revealed that the white patches distract birds of prey. In the wild, falcons dive-bomb other winged animals from above at high speeds. Some pigeons respond by rolling away in midair, and on a spiraling bird, white rump feathers can be eye-catching, which means that a patch of them may divert a hungry raptor’s focus long enough to make the carnivore miscalculate and zip right past its intended victim.
11. DODOS WERE RELATED TO TODAY’S PIGEONS.
Though most of this list focuses on the rock pigeon, there are 308 living species of pigeons and doves. Together, they make up an order of birds known as the columbiformes. The extinct dodo belonged to this group as well.
Flightless and (somewhat) docile, dodos once inhabited Mauritius, an island near Madagascar. The species had no natural predators, but when human sailors arrived with rats, dogs, cats, and pigs, it began to die out, and before the 17th century came to a close, the dodo had vanished altogether. DNA testing has confirmed that pigeons are closely related to the dodo, and the vibrant Nicobar pigeon (above) is its nearest genetic relative. A multi-colored bird with iridescent feathers, this near-threatened creature is found on small islands in the South Pacific and off Asia. Unlike the dodo, it can fly.
12. AT ONE POINT, MORE THAN ONE-QUARTER OF ALL THE BIRDS LIVING IN THE U.S. MAY HAVE BEEN PASSENGER PIGEONS.
Wild/feral rock pigeons reside in all 50 states, which makes it easy to forget that they’re invasive birds. Originally native to Eurasia and northern Africa, the species was (most likely) introduced to North America by French settlers in 1606. At the time, a different kind of columbiform—this one indigenous—was already thriving there: the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). As many as 5 billion of them were living in America when England, Spain, and France first started colonizing, and they may have once represented anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of the total U.S. bird population. But by the early 20th century, they had become a rare sight, thanks to overhunting, habitat loss, and a possible genetic diversity issue. The last known passenger pigeon—a captive female named Martha—died on September 1, 1914.
13. THEY’RE REALLY GOOD AT MULTITASKING.
According to one study, they’re more efficient multitaskers than people are. Scientists at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum put together a test group of 15 humans and 12 pigeons and trained all of them to complete two simple jobs (like pressing a keyboard once a light bulb came on). They were also put in situations wherein they’d need to stop working on one job and switch over to another. In some trials, the participants had to make the change immediately. During these test runs, humans and pigeons switched between jobs at the same speed.
But in other trials, the test subjects were allowed to complete one assignment and then had to wait 300 milliseconds before moving on to the next job. Interestingly, in these runs, the pigeons were quicker to get started on that second task after the period ended. In the avian brain, nerve cells are more densely packed, which might enable our feathered friends to process information faster than we can under the right circumstances.
14. PIGEONS PRODUCE FAKE “MILK.”
Only mammals produce genuine milk, but pigeons and doves (along with some other species of birds) feed their young with something similar—a whitish liquid filled with nutrients, fats, antioxidants, and healthy proteins called “crop milk.” Both male and female pigeons create the milk in the crop, a section of the esophagus designed to store food temporarily. As is the case with mammal milk, the creation of crop milk is regulated by the hormone prolactin. Newly-hatched pigeons drink crop milk until they’re weaned off it after four weeks or so. (And if you’ve ever asked yourself, “Where are all the baby pigeons?” we have the answer for you right here.)
15. ONE STUDY SUGGESTS THAT, GIVEN THE RIGHT CONDITIONS, THEY’RE AS GOOD AT IDENTIFYING CANCER AS DOCTORS.
We’ve already established that pigeons are excellent at differentiating between artists and words, but a 2015 study revealed they can also distinguish between malignant and benign growths in the right conditions. Researchers at University of California Davis Medical Center put 16 pigeons in a room with magnified biopsies of potential breast cancers. If the pigeons correctly identified them as either benign or malignant, they got a treat, According to Scientific American.
“Once trained, the pigeons’ average diagnostic accuracy reached an impressive 85 percent. But when a “flock sourcing” approach was taken, in which the most common answer among all subjects was used, group accuracy climbed to a staggering 99 percent, or what would be expected from a pathologist. The pigeons were also able to apply their knowledge to novel images, showing the findings weren’t simply a result of rote memorization.”
Mammograms proved to be more of a challenge, however; the birds could memorize signs of cancer in the images they were trained on but could not identify the signs in new images.
No matter how impressive their results, “I don’t anticipate that pigeons, no matter how good they become at pathology or radiology, will be playing a role in actual patient care—certainly for the foreseeable future,” study co-author Richard M. Levenson told Scientific American. “There are just too many regulatory barriers—at least in the West.”
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