Pigeons are amazing and you should look at them: a thread.

If you live in a big city, you probably see rock pigeons (Columba livia) all the time. Why are they there? Why are they so good at living right next to humans? Because of people. We sculpted them into the perfect companions.

Pigeons are the earliest domesticated birds. People in the old world domesticated them thousands of years ago, and used them for food, pets, racing, message-carrying (some are decorated war heroes!), and more. Paul Julius Reuter (of Reuters) used them to carry stock prices.

For colonists, bringing pigeons from the Old World was a no brainer.

City pigeons come in a lot of colors. Why? The same reason that feral dogs and cats are colorful! We bred pigeons for fancy hues, shapes, behaviors. The escapees passed on these traits. They're colorful mutts.

SOME AMAZING THINGS TO NOTICE WHEN YOU WATCH FERAL PIGEONS

-They mate for life. They make out a lot. (Okay, they mock-vomit into each others' mouths a lot)

-They make milk for their babies. (Okay, milky throat secretions)



Pic by Ingrid Taylar (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/taylar/8512601698 …

-Watching pigeons is one of the BEST ways to find birds of prey! If you see a flock of pigeons whirling in the sky, look for peregrine falcons, cooper's hawks, red-tailed hawks, and all sorts of other sweet raptors.

-You can tell young pigeons from old pigeons. The young ones have darker eyes, a few stray golden down feathers, and a scraggly mouth.



Pic by Newtown graffiti (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/newtown_grafitti/7710198632 …

-Some early research suggests that darker pigeons might be better at tolerating heavy metals in polluted areas. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/why-dark-pigeons-rule-streets …



Pic by Yves6 (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Pigeon.jpg …

In conclusion: there are pigeons in your city because people put them there, and then most of the people forgot why. Now pigeons do their best to survive, and they do a pretty good job: they smooch, forage, raise kids, and feed cool predators.

Try watching a pigeon today.





You can follow @RosemaryMosco.

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