Pigeons are special, but me saying that might surprise you, let me give you some context.

What is a pigeon⌗

The Pigeon is a very long domesticated bird. Thousands, yes thousands of years ago we used their extreme good navigational sense or for food. Pigeons you see in cities are rock pigeons, one of a few existing pigeon species like the Common wood pigeon, Eurasian collared dove or the Diamond Pigeon.

Rock Pigeons are like their name suggests living in Rocks and Cliffs. Which is also why they feel “safe” within our cities. The tall buildings of cities resemble the Rocks and Cliffs enough that they use them as nesting grounds, note especially Bridge support beams are a very common home for the Rock Pigeon.

During World War 2, Pigeons where used to transmit messages which saved a lot of lives, a few pigeons even received medals of honours for their role in coordination during the War.

After pigeons where no longer needed for that purpose a lot of the breeders simply set free their flocks, their descendants are the pigeons living in our cities now.

About the pigeons bad image⌗

Today most people will simply ignore pigeons within cities, but the perception is largly negative. And yes i can understand that people can get upset when a bird poops everywhere on their car or Subway stations Stairways.

That is a fundamentally flawed view since we put pigeons on the street, they are simply fighting for survival.

Which is also why from time to time when driving you will encounter pigeons on the street, who are either desperately trying to eat some food or are dissoriented and/or weak.

Food⌗

Contradictory to a spread belief, Bread is not natural food for Pigeons, you can compare it to us eating raw Flour or sugar, yes it has calories but its probably not a good diet and might leave us with a upset stomache. Which is exactly what happens with Pigeons, their urine and poop is ejected at the same time, but normally is solid and does not splash. The splashing most people despite comes from the poor, very poor diet they have to live with, if you ate basically nothing for 2 weeks im sure you would love the plate full of sugar.

Pigeons depend on us Humans feeding them their diet of seeds they naturally need, within the city they are unable to find enough food, not speaking of a healthy diet.

Hygiene⌗

Pigeons are very clean birds, they meticulously clean their feathers for flight with their beak and do take baths too. Yes like any animal living with humans, they carry deseases of which a very few they can transmit to us, among them being salmonella and Psittacosis. Although to catch those you need to be working with the birds directly and need to either inhale feather dust or have poor hygenic routines. To put it short, it is as likely you will catch something from your dog or even more likely then from a pigeon, especially without direct contact. It is much more likely you will transmit a virus or a bacteria to the pigeon which it can get sick of.

Behaviour and Mating⌗

There are people who will say that they saw “Fat” Pigeons, the thruth though, pigeons do not get fat. If you experience a larger then usual pigeon it is almost certain that stems from the fact it fluffed up, which means it puts air between the skin and the feathers. This serves two purposes, 1. Male will use it to impress females when trying to mate. 2. By fluffing up they preserve heat, which is a indicator a pigeon is not doing well, pigeons do not get fever. When sick they cool down and thus fluffing up is a way to preserve body temperature, which is around 40-41 degrees celcius.

Pigeons usually mate for life. Once a couple found together they stay together until one of them dies. Parents further share the feeding of chicks, with both producing a milk from what they eat. Gay and lesbian pigeons are also a thing btw!

Population spread⌗

Pigeons are not very picky about nests and so they mate year around. Denying feeding will make the problem worse as when starved, couples will start laying even more eggs in a attempt to preserve their existance. Chemical approaches like “the pill for pigeons” can of course work but usually do not take side effects into account and are hard to monitor.

The best way to effectively and sustainably control the population is to build controlled breading spaces where eggs are replaced by fake ones.

A note on Pigeon racing⌗

Yes Pigeon racing is a sport. But like with most sports involving animals, its only the human who is enyoing it.

Pigeons homing sense allows them to find their home from a very far distance. Pigeon racers abuse that trait and the extreme need of a bird to return to their partner or chicks to force them flying over large distance, exhausting themselfs or being eaten by other predators. Often they also strand in cities exhausted, sometimes unable to continue.

So what should you do⌗

I hope this changed your view on those birds the next time you see one, you do not have to love them. But please don’t hate them. If you want to feed them, prefer seeds or unsalted peanuts over bread.

And if you find a weak animal not flying away help it by putting it in a cartbox, make a nest out of a towel to put the pigeon in, do not give water or food! and research locals in your cities or vets(which are familiar with birds) to contact them and hopefully help the pigeon. Pigeons cannot scream, they suffer in silence. And if it does not fly away. It means its urgent time to help!