Anonymous asked: My mom thinks pigeons are gross and stinky and stupid. How do I prove her wrong? How do I tell her that these animals are beautiful creatures in need of help?
Aesthetic appeal varies widely between individuals and misinformation is rampant, but here are some photos of different breeds of healthy pigeons and just a SHIT TON of links about pigeon intelligence and service to humanity.
This is my Feral service pigeon, Ankhou.
I have severe ADD and social anxiety, am on the autism spectrum, and struggle with depression.
When stressed or overstimulated, I shut down and lose time. I can go for hours with out moving, eating, or drinking, but am not asleep, and if responsive, may be nonverbal.
My husband prevents me from shutting down when he’s home, but when I’m home alone, I may just be stuck like that.
Ankhou doesn’t like it when that happens to me, and taught himself to prevent it or snap me out of it if preventing it wasn’t possible through escalating cuddles and harassment.
He starts by cuddling up against me and grunting to get my attention, then preens my hand or ducks his head under it for petting. If that doesn’t work, he escalates to pinching until something makes me respond and then snuggles with me until I relax and am able to start moving and doing the normal Dani things.
This is Gastby, one of our rescues who has since gone to his new home. ^v^ Best guess, he’s a homer x roller cross.
Grayson and Spirit are Racing Homers, both found crashed out after their bodies had burned their own muscle in the mad dash home.
The impulse to stop and eat during a long flight home has been bred out of racers, so they fly nonstop and once they run out of food in their crops and bellies, their body burns their muscle for fuel until they either get back home or drop out of the sky, too thin and exhausted to move.
Spirit was a funeral bird, blown off course in a storm. The funeral was in Atlanta. She ended up three hours away in Augusta, crashed out in a parking lot and mistaken for a dove.
Sylver and Apollo are Burmingham Rollers, bred to perform areal acrobatics in sight of their loft. They can home, but not very well, and occasionally get lost.
As they are rarely banded, it is hell to trace them back to their breeders.
They are bred to start backflipping mid flight and roll, pulling up as close to the ground as possible with out actually striking it.
Man, Pugsly wouldn’t station to save his life. XD
He’s a Portuguese Tumbler, another (tiny!) performance breed that does brief, exheuberant little flippies in midair.
These are non standard color Archangels. Bred for a specific color and pattern, being miscolored and mismarked is a SEREOUS show fault. for these!
I stopped breeding them because they are a very high strung, flighty breed that does better in a spacious loft than indoors.
Friar Tuck is a Black Nun.
LOVE the look of this breed, but they absolutely refuse to brood eggs, often laying them on the floor and wandering off.
One of the least intelligent breeds of pigeon, they are, however, EXCEPTIONALLY docile and friendly, and would make wonderful pets for any one uninterested in breeding.
Orel is a Luscerne Gold Collar.
OH these broke my heart! These were my DREAM pigeons! Just as sweet tempered and easily handled as they are beautiful!
But their squeakers are SO quiet and docile that the parent’s feeding response is never triggered!
Young pairs have to be primed using a baby of a different breed with a longer beak that yells louder, which puts them at a firm NO on my list of potential breeds to perpetuate.
Like the Nun, they are WONDERFUL pets, if you don’t want to breed! SWEETEST temperament! Even if they don’t like you, they will still let you pick them up and pet them.
Loaf is a Frillback I fostered for another breeder, shown as a peep and in her breeder’s loft as an adult.
Frillbacks are HUGE! Over a pound! And their fluff and muffs can need trimming for successful copulation. I… may reconsider these if I end up with enough space to comfortably house a pair…
They are a SUPER mellow breed!
This is one of my Old Dutch Capuchine hens at the vet.
One of the first breeds I ever researched, they are famously sweet tempered, tight setters, devoted to their chicks.
Their mane is glorious, but not SO exagerated that it impedes their vision or feeding their young.
Great pet. Good breed for beginners that want to raise some pretty pidge.
Brunhilde, may she rest in peace, was an Old German Owl, another of the first breeds I researched when I got into pigeons.
The Owl family of domestic pigeon breeds are named for their round faces, short beaks, and great big eyes.
And let me tell you, that sweet expression is no lie! The owl breeds are renowned for their tractability.
Antonio was a Valencian Figurita, the world’s smallest breed of pigeon.
These little pixies among pidge are also considered an Owl breed. Jaunty, bouncy, energetic, and curious, these are friendly little birds about the size of a Ringneck dove, and about the closest you really get to a cage bird among the purebred pigeons.
Aaand saving the best for last, the Classic Old Frill is not only my favorite among the Owl breeds, but my favorite breed of pigeon PERIOD!
There will NEVER come a time where I do not want to raise this breed!
They are the total pidge package! Sweet, friendly, mellow, tractable, EXCELLENT parents! and the icing on this perfect little treat of a bird is its breath taking beauty!
Look at it!
That breed is a work of living art and they KNOW! Oh, I could gush for ever about them!
As for why the stray Ferals need help, I’ll let Ankhou tell you.
Ankhou was NOT pretty when he got here.
He was about four weeks old.
For reference, this is what a four week old pigeon SHOULD look like.
This baby is one of my COFs, but she is the same age as that sad naked skeleton above her.
Ankhou was found in a parking lot, running in circles around the base of a lamp, crying or his parents, who were present, but not able to anything to get him to safety.
Here is Ankhou again, doing his job at my Sister in Law’s house and preventing me from going into shut down.
And once more, here he is so that you can see that his lack of feathers is not genetic. With regular feeding and a good diet, he grew feathers in. It took six months, which should really tell you what bad shape he was in when he got here!
So what happened? His parents had clearly not abandoned him.
The process of domestication changed pigeons in some pretty fundamental ways.
Pretty much all wild birds have a breeding season, where hens are triggered to produce egg making hormones by the length of the day or change in the weather.
That’s been bred out of domestic (and thus also feral) pigeons. If they aren’t literally starving to immediate death, they are biologically wired to produce peepers NON STOP!
Ankhou was so emaciated that his body lacked the fuel to grow feathers.
Pigeons are more devoted to raising their squeakers than they are to keeping themselves fed.
Even with more than enough food to go around, in the loft of a breeder that cares for them so they don’t have to go anywhere to forage, four week old baby pigeons OUTWEIGH their parents at weaning time!
Think about that, and look at that pitiful living skeleton again.
In order for him to be so thin that HIS BODY HAD TO PRIORITIZE GROWING MUSCLE OVER GROWING FEATHERS, BECAUSE IT COULD NOT DO BOTH!!!, his parents must have just not been able to find enough food.
Not surprising, since it’s pretty hard to find grain and seed mix in a city.
Feral pigeons are as domesticated as show birds. They are not wild animals, and deserve the same concern you would show a lost or stray puppy, because that is what they are.
There are not enough homes to take in all the stray pigeons, and being trapped would do the adults way more harm than good.
But if you see a pigeon that is visibly injured, has visibly tied up feet, or lets you get really close to it with out trying to get away or tries but has trouble keeping its balance or getting airborn, THAT bird needs immediate help and will not be ok if left alone.
Here are some links that may help prove that pigeons aren’t stupid. Some of these I’ve posted before, but here they are all together.
