7 FACTS ABOUT PIGEONS THAT MAY BE NEW TO YOU
It seems like pigeons are in every city around the world. And it is no wonder! This bird is capable of raising to 10 chicks per year and feeds on practically anything that humans discard, which has led them to overpopulate our cities. Their droppings are annoying and difficult to clean, which is why some hate them and contemptuously call them “winged rats”. However, pigeons are more than that. They may have a bad reputation but they are quite curious and intelligent birds belong to the Columbidae family.
The name “pigeon” is applied to several species of this family, but those of the Columba genus are strictly called “typical pigeons”. The best-known pigeon species are the wild pigeon (Columbia livia) and its subspecies, the domestic pigeon (Columbia livia domestic).
Pigeons are relatively small, compact-bodied birds. The head is small and the legs, without feathers, are short. They have a small and slightly curved downward beak, on the surface of which there are 2 nostrils protected by a membranous layer called the operculum. Its wings are large and powered by powerful muscles and its tail is short.
The size, weight, and color of the plumage vary greatly between species. The wild pigeon measures between 29 and 37 centimeters in length and 62-72 centimeters in wingspan. Wild or feral individuals can weigh from 238 to 380 grams, but domestic ones are usually a little heavier due to the abundance of food found in populated areas.
The color of the plumage is very varied. Some have a light brown or dull grayish color, and others have a darker, bluish, or lighter dot or fringe pattern. I even saw a black and gold one the other day!
Pigeons have been around for thousands of years.
Writings and archaeological remains of the time show the history of pigeons begins 10,000 years ago when the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq) and Egypt managed to persuade wild pigeons (Columba livia), offering them feed to nest and reproduce on their land.
After this, humans took these birds to the first cities with one main reason: to serve as food. At that time, the chicks were a source of protein and fat highly appreciated by the population, which is why they began to breed them, which gave rise to several subspecies. That is why today we see so much variety in the colors of our urban pigeons, contrary to what happens with the wild pigeon.
Fortunately for pigeons, other birds such as chickens, quail, and other poultry came into our lives that were more “profitable” to raise for their meat, which made us gradually stop eating a pigeon. Of course, by then we had realized that the pigeons had a magnificent sense of direction, which made it common to take them on boats to notify land of any danger that the sinking of the ship could pose.
For this reason, pigeon fanfare has been a common hobby for centuries, and it is this love of humans to raise them and use them as food that made them come to North America, to meet the demands of European emigrants, who took them in the ship by the thousands. This is how they conquered all cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
Inevitably, many escaped from their lofts and began to breed in the open air in our cities, replicas of the original coastal cliffs where the wild pigeon nests with its attractive balconies, sills, canopies, air conditioners, and a thousand and one more places to perch and observe their surroundings from above.
Peaceful. Sometimes.
As for the nature of the pigeons, it is usually peaceful and calm. The dove has become a symbol of peace for most cultures, it also symbolizes harmony, innocence, simplicity, or candor, especially the white dove. However, although the figure of the dove symbolizes peace, the truth is that sometimes these animals can become violent to the point of killing each other or assaulting the pigeons of other couples to try to survive, due to the loss of places to build their nests and to decrease food sources.
They are generally observed during the day, and at night they usually rest. If it is very hot during the day they stop their activities and take refuge to prevent their body from overheating. They can spend a lot of time together and feed in flocks. They are also very vocal; they emit various types of vocalizations for different purposes such as attracting a partner or showing alarm.
They’ve got skills.
The incredible instinct that undoubtedly characterizes pigeons is their sense of direction.
Carrier pigeons are domestic pigeons bred to send small packages of up to 75 grams or message papers that are attached to one of their legs. These pigeons were widely used in times of World War I to send messages quickly and even a female, named Cher Ami, was awarded the War Cross for her courier service.Thanks to their great memory, both visual and olfactory (they can remember the smell of the area where they live), in the wild they can remember the way to return to their nest from very long distances. Also involved is their sense of magnet reception, which consists of magnetite crystals in their beaks, suggesting that they could use the magnetic fields to orient themselves and fly to their nest or dovecote.
Apart from having a great sense of direction, pigeons are also characterized by their following physical abilities:
- Flight: Did you know the pigeon is one of the fastest flying birds, reaching 56 km / hr?
- Sight: The keen sense of sight of pigeons is truly incredible so much so that the United States Coast Guard often equips its rescue helicopters with a pair of pigeons located in a small cabin with bay windows at the bottom front of their helicopters to who can help with the bailouts.
They don’t forget a face.
Pigeons may look stupid but they are more intelligent birds than is believed. Through numerous experiments in comparative psychology, including experiments related to the mental capacities of animals, an impressive collection of important information resulted about their intelligence level.
Some data obtained from the experiments show that:
- Training pigeons can perform complex actions and response sequences and can also learn to respond in different sequences.
- Pigeons can distinguish other pigeons and can use the behavior of another pigeon as a signal to give an adequate response.
- Pigeons can remember large numbers of images for a long time, for example, they can remember hundreds of images over periods of several years.
I believe it! On one site, the flock began to recognize my van. I had to take sneaky measures arriving so that I did not scare them away.
Pigeons breed all year long.
And the feral pigeon will breed between 4 and 8 times a year! That’s a lot of birds.
Pigeons produce eggs that develop and hatch outside the maternal body. During the female’s rutting season, the male is in charge of attracting the female through twittering and various songs. It is quite a ritual.
10 days after mating the female lays one egg and two days later she lays another. Approximately 17 or 18 days later the chicks hatch. Both the female and the male are involved in feeding and protecting the young. They are fed for seven days by both parents through a highly nutritious secretion called farm milk.
After about a week, the little chicks already begin to eat crushed soft seeds. And finally, after 4 weeks, the young begin to eat on their own and begin to leave the nest and explore the outside world.
They are everywhere, except 2 regions.
In their natural habitat, pigeons live in caves when space is available near openings, and they also often live on or near large rocky cliffs. Their nests are usually weak and are made from sticks and debris on the faces of these cliffs, resulting in a complete challenge for many predators. In their natural habitat, they eat mainly seeds and grains, but they also eat fruits, insects, slugs, snails, and even small lizards.
The pigeons over time spread around the world until they reached the cities where thanks to their adaptation they usually nest in tall buildings and ledges of windows that simulate the natural cliffs where wild pigeons live.
City pigeons often eat what people feed them — pieces of bread, crumbs, and birdseed. However, they also dig through the trash, picking up the food scraps they find.
In suburban and rural areas pigeons also can thrive, they quickly move to open barns and abandoned houses, under bridges, and around other available structures to nest.
In this environment, they usually feed on spilled grains, garden waste, and food of animal origin, as well as any other food that comes their way.
Pigeons amazing birds that can adapt to almost any part of the world. They nest in swampy forests, temperate deciduous forests, or arboreal forests.
Pigeons also nest in desert areas where they obtain water by eating succulent plants, and they also live on islands, in mangrove forests, in chaparrals, and almost every other environment on Earth.
In areas where the environment is optimal and rich in food, pigeons can nest and live in groups of thousands of birds. However, the places where the pigeons have not settled are the Antarctic and Arctic regions.
Pigeon diseases
The infectious diseases that pigeons can transmit to humans are the consequence of direct contact with this bird or its feces and feathers, through viruses, fungi, and bacteria that cause allergies and respiratory ailments.
Contagion situations are very specific and unlikely. However, it is true that the greater the number of pigeons, the more likely there will be problems.
Among some of the most common diseases transmitted by pigeons are:
- Cryptococcosis: Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungus that is found in the pigeon droppings, although it is found in the soil. Transmission occurs through inhalation of yeast-like spores of the fungus, although it may occasionally occur through ingestion and is usually the result of direct contact with the nests. By breathing the fungus, it enters the respiratory tract and reaches the lungs, where it can generate infection if the immune system is not inadequate conditions.
- Salmonellosis: Pigeon droppings can be a route of infection for salmonella. Salmonella is a bacterial infection that can come through contaminated food and even through hanging clothes. The symptoms that it causes in people is fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
- Psittacosis or chlamydiosis: The bacterium Chlamydia psittaci is responsible for psittacosis. Psittacosis is a disease usually transmitted by parrots, parakeets, and parrots, although also pigeons can be infected and become transmitters, causing in man similar pictures to pneumonia and influenza and even digestive ailments since this bacterium penetrates the body to through the airways and spreads through the bloodstream to invade the lung, spleen, and liver.
- Allergic alveolitis or pneumonitis: This is an allergic reaction, a hypersensitivity to feathers and fecal dust of pigeons and is caused by continuous exposure to these birds, such as those that work in a kennel doing housekeeping tasks. Alveolitis causes inflammation of the alveoli, inflammation of the outer part of the lungs, and the symptoms are coughs, shortness of breath, fever, and chills. It can be mistaken for a cold.
- Histoplasmosis: This is a respiratory disease caused by a fungus called Histoplasma, which is caused by inhaling the spores of the fungus that is often found in the droppings of birds and bats. Histoplasmosis manifests with severe lung damage accompanied by cough, fever, chills, and chest pain.
