Pigeon – From Cliffs to Cobblestones

It’s already over. Summer lasted thirty seconds and I didn’t even get to go on a picnic? I had to pull a jacket out of the wardrobe the other day? I am craving soup? Truth be told, I like autumn. It suits my complexion, my outfits look better, and I can buy a hot chocolate at 08:32 on a Friday without the person at the till being like ‘Oh! Sure!’. But there’s also that horrible, tumultuous feeling of change, of something new waiting to start (the school year, I guess, if you’re a Youth); And when you’re feeling a little lost and that first bite of chill hits you, don’t you want something constant and familiar to ground you? To remind you that the times may change, but some things stay the same? Well, this month’s bird has been with humanity throughout all our ups and downs, so take solace in the fact that they’re in it for the long haul. This month’s bird is the Feral Pigeon (Columba livia forma domestica/urbana), known in Irish as Colm aille.

There are so many things to be said about the feral pigeon. Their Irish name translates to “cliff pigeon”, an homage to their humble origins. Scientifically (specifically, genetically) speaking, there isn’t a difference between pigeons and doves, but we arbitrarily assign the name dove to the smaller species of the Columbidae family and pigeon to the larger ones. So what’s the family history of these friendly feral fellas? Well, “rock doves” are the non-domesticated, wild form of this bird. They’re the stereotypical pigeon with the dashing blue-grey feathers, sophisticated black wing stripes, and gorgeous iridescent throat feathers. Despite their beauty, in the wild they are painfully demure and prefer to nest on inaccessible cliffs. This makes it hard to observe them, and I suppose we can’t always verify if their colonies are purely wild because our friendly neighbourhood pigeons will roost alongside them.

Rock doves were domesticated a long time ago and when the domesticated birds got free, they had chicks, and the chicks went on to become the feral pigeons we know today. So, rock dove -> domesticated pigeon -> feral pigeons, all separated by time and circumstance. I’m not going to throw my hat into the debate about whether or not feral pigeons are rock doves and therefore deserve a different name. If you wanna go verify that for yourself, head to Belmullet Peninsula in Co. Mayo. My sources tell me that’s where you can reliably find native rock doves in their natural range. Take a gander and let me know where you stand.

Oh yes, you read that right: Mayo is part of the rock dove’s original native range. These birds are just so adaptable, that you could find them out as far east as India, everywhere along the Mediterranean, and in some choice hot spots along the western coasts of Ireland and Scotland (not England cause these birds know whassup). They have since been introduced to most of the rest of the world, notably to North America and Australia in the 17th century as livestock, messengers, and for racing competitions.

When I said they’d been with humanity throughout our ups and downs, I meant it. These birds are not only the oldest domesticated bird, but also one of the oldest human-domesticated animals ever. Like, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics old. Mesopotamian cuneiform old. The evidence points to their domestication over 5,000 years ago, but researchers think domestication occurred as early as 10,000 years ago. To give you some context of what else was happening during that time, most of the ice age megafauna had just gone extinct and humans began farming barley and wheat.

To compare these birds to something that was around at that time, like the great Irish Elk or sabre-toothed cats, and realise their descendants are just walking around in our cities today is pretty amazing. The birds in Dublin city centre can trace their lineage back to birds who were around humans before we invented writing (and what a privilege it is to get to write about them today!)

Both the “fancy” breeds of pigeon and the humble feral pigeon can trace their roots back to the domestic pigeon. While the fancy pigeons can look very pretty (or very weird), I personally think they don’t hold a candle to the natural variance of the feral pigeon. They come in all sorts of colours – white, black, brown, traditional rock dove, blends of two or more – and typically have a beautiful bright orange iris, the colour of an autumn marigold. Sometimes, due to inbreeding, this warm orange light can be snuffed out in favour of an eerie, all black eye, as is the case of my bird nemesis, the treacherous stock dove. Seeing those birds made me understand the “birds are government drones” theories, as they look like they have soulless camera lenses for eyes. But we here at the Bird Blog don’t condone this theory as every bird is unique and wonderful and shouldn’t be reduced down as to be compared to a mindless drone.

And speaking of making things up about birds, there’s a number of myths about pigeons that we’re gonna dispel now together:

Myth: Pigeons are stupid.
Fact: Pigeons are actually quite intelligent, possessing the ability to remember faces and the capacity to learn actions and perform tricks. A study over several years showed that pigeons can remember and discern between hundreds of different images, and Japanese researchers were able to train pigeons to tell the difference between art from Picasso and Monet, even paintings they had not seen before. So looks like pigeons are actually smarter than some people!

Myth: Pigeons are dirty and can give you illnesses like tuberculosis and salmonella.
Fact: The risk of getting infected from pigeons is very low, even if you handle them regularly. Their poop is no more dangerous or disease-laden than any other bird poop.

Myth: Pigeons build stupid flimsy nests made of like 5 twigs and a paperclip to lay their eggs in.
Fact: No this one is true, but I think that just shows their adaptability given the circumstances, and the sheer will to live of their chicks. Baby pigeons are called squabs and they are very unfortunate looking. They’re raised on regurgitated “crop milk” from their parents, which is nutritionally similar to mammalian milk, but has a consistency of cottage cheese. Yum.

Despite their vitality as chicks, pigeons rarely live longer than 10 years, owing their short lives to their unsafe environments. If treated right, they can live for up to 30 years, and for all of that time, they’re socially monogamous so once they’re off the market, they’re off the market for life.

Their mating behaviour is easy to spot once you know what to look for. You’ve honestly probably seen it already. The male puffs out the feathers on his neck to make him look big and swole. Then, he powerwalks over to the lady, cooing in deep dulcet tones the whole time. He’s bowing down before her and doing little pirouettes to show off his lovely fanned out tail feathers. She is usually walking or flying away a short distance, with him following behind her. This brings to mind the trope of a man out in the rain with a boombox, singing up towards his beloved’s window to woo her.

You can see them doing this at any time of year. Walk through St. Stephen’s Green tomorrow and you’ll probably catch several in the act. Pigeons are so sociable that large crowds of them quickly become established in a prime hangout spot, like an urban park. Of course, they’re famous for their presence in a lot of cities, like Trafalgar Square in London or Piazza San Marco in Venice. You can hear them before you see them, since they always seem to be cooing away to themselves, and they make that iconic noise when a huge cloud of them takes to the air. The sound is their wing-feathers clapping and, fun fact, it’s done to alert the other members of the flock that they need to GO.

Of course, we can’t talk about feral pigeons without mentioning the missing toes. Or feet, in some cases. Yes, feral pigeons are often missing toes or feet. Why does it happen? The theory is that they walk around in urban areas more than other birds and so get synthetic fibres like thread or floss, or even human hair wrapped around their legs, cutting off circulation and eventually resulting in an amputation. They also walk in puddles and who knows what nasty dirty pollution is lurking in that water, it might lead to infections and lost digits.

In my old university buildings, pigeons would often fly in when the doors were open and then just hang out inside for hours (why bother going back outside when you can stay in the warmth and peck at free crumbs dropped by student lunches?) I remember this one really scraggly little pigeon, very thin, oily black complexion, who I saw on a daily basis for an entire term. I nicknamed them Peachfoot because there was something wrong with one of their feet and it had turned a pale peachy colour. Back then I believed the myths about pigeons being dirty and spreading salmonella and I’m kind of a germophobe so the most I did was let him have the ends of my crisps (probably very bad for them, don’t feed the pigeons). I think of Peachfoot from time to time, and I hope they’re alright. Hopefully they charmed another student into being their benefactor.

Before they were debased to the point of pecking at old pizza crusts between cobblestones for a meal, pigeons were creatures of great renown. Homing or messenger pigeons are a domestic breed of rock dove, whose claim to fame is their ability to return home no matter how far they’re taken from it. They do this using an ability called magnetoreception (word of the day). This allows them to sense the magnetic field of the Earth and use it to orient their flying direction like a compass. Pigeons are very strong fliers and very accurate gliders, with powerful breast muscles to support constant flapping over hours. These pigeons are also known as war pigeons, since they were used to transmit secret messages during times of conflict, most notably during WWI and WWII.

We actually have a famous homing pigeon from WWII! His name was Paddy, and he was the fastest pigeon to arrive back in England with news of success of the D-Day invasion. He flew 370 km (230 miles, if you believe in those) across the English Channel in 4 hours and 50 minutes, the fastest recorded crossing. He was awarded the Dickin medal for his bravery on 01 September 1944, the only animal in Ireland to receive it. I’m sure his trainer, Andrew Hughes of Carnlough, got some mad bragging rights after that.

Though we now have other non-bird methods of communication, the keeping, breeding, and racing of pigeons is still practised today. Shout out to the Irish National Fancy Pigeon Association and the Irish Homing Union, hit them up if you wanna get into pigeoning.

So, there you have it. I hope I’ve managed to teach you something new about our feral friends, or at the very least, calm some of the more negative sentiment you might have about them. I fully believe if pigeons weren’t so common, we’d revere them like we do any other exotic beautiful bird – I mean those iridescent neck feathers could rival a hummingbird’s! But even that we get to see them so often is a wonderful thing, because it’s a testament to their desire to stay close to the humans that befriended them thousands of years ago. So next time you’re in town and walking behind a one-footed little pidge, I hope you remember this article and it brings you a little smile.