Urban Exotics

While wandering the concrete streets of Center City Philadelphia, I encountered the three most common Northern American exotic birds:

Rock Pigeon

European Starling

House Sparrow

I do not understate when I say that most birders in North America regard these birds with disdain, at best.

But ... they are remarkable survivors. These birds make their living where almost no other creatures can (other than the invasive, environmentally destructive, biped).

They make their living, in part, by cleaning up the garbage of that wasteful biped. I'm not too happy when these birds raid my feeders in Vermont (though for voraciousness they pale before the Evening Grosbeaks). In the urban environment, these birds are a welcome sign of resilience.

 

Pigeons - High Speed Communicators

Common name: Rock Pigeon - formerly known as Rock Dove, popularly called “pigeon.”
Scientific name: Columba livia, in the Family, Columbidae.

The Latin livia means blue, blue-gray, or lead colored, a reference to the Rock Pigeon’s predominantly bluish plumage, although its color variations are many. The “rock” of its common name refers to its preferred nesting habitant in the wild on rocky places.

The Rock Pigeon is one of three species introduced to North America which has become abundant. All three are generally disliked by birders because they “don’t belong,” and displace native species. The three species are tough and adaptable birds which can tolerate and thrive in association with humans. The House Sparrow and European Starling were wild birds which were released from their cages in New York City (the House Sparrow in 1851, the starling in 1890) and which quickly adapted to life in the new home. Both spread rapidly and are abundant year round residents throughout most of North America.

The Rock Pigeon is also an abundant year round resident throughout much of North America, particularly in cities and towns. But unlike the House Sparrow and starling, the Rock Pigeon population in not descended from wild birds which were released. The Rock Pigeon population is descended from domesticated birds which escaped and established a feral population. Even today, many writers routinely refer to these pigeons are feral pigeons. Behind this “feral” status of the Rock Pigeon in a long and fascinating history.

Egyptian Dovecote

A bird or animal is said to be domesticated when it has been tamed and can live in or around human habitation and with human care. There is usually some change from wild form, often the result of controlled breeding in captivity. The most familiar domesticated birds are chickens, ducks, turkeys, and some geese. Controlled breeding changes a bird’s wild ancestor into a bird that may have more meat, lay more eggs, or produce more feathers.  We are familiar with these domesticated birds because we regularly consume them, or their eggs, or use other by-products from them.

But how many of us know that the Rock Pigeon was (probably) the first bird to be domesticated? There is evidence that people bred domestic pigeons during the Neolithic Age beginning around 8500 B.C. The earliest proof of domesticated pigeons dates from about 4500 B.C. and comes from terra-cotta figurines found in what is today modern Iraq. It is thought that pigeons were first raised in captivity for their meat.

However, pigeons have a remarkable homing ability. They can find their way back to their nest or pigeon cote from hundreds of miles away, regardless of the direction they have traveled or have been transported. They are rapid, and seemingly, tireless flyers.

We are all aware of the thousands of miles that many birds travel during migration and their ability to navigate those vast distances. But nowhere in the Rock Pigeon’s native, wild range do they migrate. They may move relatively short distances during seasonal changes and in response to food needs, but they are not natural, long distance travelers. How is it then that pigeons have such a strong homing ability. This homing ability is not well understood. An ability to navigate by the sun, moon or stars has been suggested, as has an ability to sense magnetic fields (a more likely explanation).

6th cen Mosaic, Israel

As human groups made the transition from hunter-gatherers to agricultural societies, food surpluses meant more leisure that had to be filled by the idle hands of emerging elites. Towns and cities developed and commerce developed. Donkey caravans traveled long distances and trading centers sprang up. I would imagine that many of those early traders carried cages of pigeons with them as a source of convenient fresh meat. Some of those birds escaped. The caravan master returned to his home base and discovered that the escaped pigeons had arrived long before he did. From the discovery of the pigeon’s homing ability, it was but a short step to employing the pigeon as a messenger carrier. At least, that is how I surmise that the domestic pigeon made the transition from domestic meat source to rapid communication medium. What is clear is that homing pigeons are known from Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics by around 3000 B.C.

Messenger Pigeon

In human societies, the pigeon was the most rapid means for communicating over long distances, its speed unsurpassed until Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph in the mid-1830s precipitated the modern communications revolution. For most of human history, the pigeon was the instant messenger, the cell phone, the blackberry, relied on to deliver messages quickly.

The results of the Olympic Games were carried by pigeons to the Greek city states. In the fourth century, Alexander the Great used homing pigeons to keep his capital informed of his progress.  Julius Caesar reported to Rome his conquests in Gaul with carrier pigeons. In the sixteenth century, there were pigeon postal services available for a fee, just as local and long distance telephone service is available today for a fee. When Napoleon met his Waterloo, the news reached the English banker, Rothschild, by private pigeon post four days before horse and ship were able to convey the victory to the city of London. Reuters News Service began on the wings of carrier pigeons.

G.I. Joe in Retirement

American forces employed about 5,000 pigeons during World War I, and over 36,000 pigeons served during World War II. In October, 1943, British forces moved rapidly to take back an Italian village, but were then threatened by an impending American air raid. A message was affixed to the leg of G.I.Joe and he was tossed into the sky. The pigeon arrived at the American air base minutes before the squadron of bombers took off, sparing a thousand British soldiers from friendly bombardment. The lord mayor of London awarded G.I. Joe with the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. The pigeon hero was retired to the army’s Pigeon Hall of Fame in New Jersey where he lived peacefully in retirement to an elderly eighteen years.

The pigeon population in cities around the world almost certainly traces to domestic pigeons gone wild. Romans not only employed them as messengers, but wealthy Romans loved their meat. Dovecotes abounded, but a carelessly tended cage meant escapees. Escapees were accustomed to human presence and soon resided abundantly in the cities where they had once been caged.

Dovecote, Tyron Palace, 1770s, North Carolina

Hence the presence of pigeons in North America. They were probably introduced first by the French at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1606, then by the English in Virginia about 1621 and in Massachusetts in 1642. It is unlikely that these pigeons were brought across the Atlantic as homing pigeons for communication with Europe. Pigeons do not like to cross water and when released at sea head immediately for the nearest shore. They were probably brought as a food source, just like chickens. Some escaped, and their descendants, still tough and adaptable, line building ridges in downtown Brattleboro, clean debris off the streets, and peck seeds at my feeders.



Two sources were important for this column: “Encyclopedia of North American Birds” edited by John Terres (1980), and “Pigeons” by Andrew Blechman (2006).

Pigeons - Pests

Common name: Rock Pigeon - formerly known as Rock Dove, popularly called “pigeon.”
Scientific name: Columba livia, in the Family, Columbidae.

The Rock Pigeon is an exotic species in North America. It did not naturally occur in North America but was introduced, probably by French colonists in Nova Scotia in the early seventeenth century and soon after by English colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts. It now lives wild nearly everywhere throughout North America. It is most familiar to people as the common city pigeon.

An adaptable bird and a prolific breeder, the Rock Pigeon has attained the unenviable status of pest in many of its town and city locations. This pest status has led to a multitude of creative and bizarre efforts to control its numbers.

I first met the Rock Pigeon’s pest status and the human effort to control it thirty-five years ago when I was living in Kittanning in western Pennsylvania. Located on the Allegheny River, the town was about the size of Brattleboro.

Kittanning had a pigeon problem, or at least, the pigeons were perceived as a problem. I attended meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, a stately, century old stone building situated on a downtown corner. The dour businessmen on the board were offended by the white pigeon droppings streaking the roof ridge, concerned about the effect of those acidic droppings on the church’s copper eaves, and the stone and mortar of the church’s exterior, and positively livid about the depth of the pigeon guano in the open bell tower. They also knew it was a town-wide problem, shared by the custodians of the county courthouse and the municipal buildings, and the owners of downtown commercial properties.

The town councilmen took action. They drew upon the deep rooted cultural resources of western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania was settled by descendants of the Scottish covenanters. These Scots Presbyterians were religiously conservative, fiercely independent, deeply individualistic, and in constant feud with one another unless someone from the outside threatened them in anyway. Then they drew immediately together. Whether the threat came from pope, bishop, or king, they responded and took up their arms.

Drawing on this genetically transmitted cultural trait, the councilmen set aside their feuding, quickly concluded that the cost of cleaning up and repairing the damage of pooping pigeons was intolerable, and so issued a call to arms. On an appointed day and time, several dozen of the local tribesmen lined the banks of the Allegheny River, armed with shotguns, and ready for the bloodbath of a pigeon shoot.

The pigeons flew from the understructure of the bridge, and the guns blazed. A few pigeons dropped. The rest flew toward the safety of the downtown buildings where better sense dictated against the discharge of firearms. Blazing away with gunpower has been a frequent recourse to getting rid of all manner of pests. That day of pigeon shooting in a western Pennsylvania river town allowed a few to strut their hormonal toughness, but had no impact on the pigeon problem.

The Presbyterian trustees eschewed their covenanter heritage and took a more passivist approach. They considered poison-laced pigeon feed, but decided that dying birds on the church sidewalks might not present an aesthetically pleasing solution. At this distance in years, I don’t remember all the steps they took, except one. Concluding that they would never be rid of the pigeons, they decided to take a longer range approach and try to control the pigeons’ breeding. So they had the pigeon control consultant spread pigeon feed in the bell tower. The pigeon feed was treated with the pigeon equivalent of birth control pills. (Readers: please note my restraint from further comment about church sponsored birth control.)

Pigeon shoots and poison continue to be used occasionally against the pigeons, but in most places those actions are wisely prohibited. There is no registered birth control or sterility drug currently available. But there are many others anti-pigeon steps which are taken, some bizarre, some environmentally hazardous, some very expensive, and some remarkably cheap and effective. The website of the Urban Wildlife Society has information about all of these efforts and a wealth of information on Rock Pigeons.

The fact remains that pigeons, in genera, are not well-liked. I once asked someone where some others who were doing a bird count had gone. The reply was that they were downtown counting pigeons.  Behind the reply was a host of implications - why count pigeons because they don’t really count - real birders don’t count pigeons - pigeon counters are casual and lax about the serious business of birding ... and so on.

And I have a friend who refuses to list pigeons on his life list or as a species seen on any day of birding. When I insist that they have feathers, he snorts, points at his neighbors chickens and scoffs, “So do they.”

On the other hand, I know someone who loves the town pigeons. He keeps count from the beginning of winter to the end of winter, duly noting the decline in the pigeon numbers. His passion is hawks, and a good flock of pigeons means that a wintering Cooper’s, or Red-tailed Hawk will have a well-stocked pantry throughout the cold months. He not only counts the pigeons, but watches  as the flock takes flight, scanning the sky for a circling Red-tailed, or quickly checking the tree tops for a Cooper’s about to launch its attack.

I saw the importance of Brattleboro’s pigeons to wintering hawks a few years ago when I was driving north on Route 30 near the Retreat Meadows. On the ice was an adult Cooper's Hawk perched on top of a Rock Pigeon. Traces of blood were on the ice beneath the pigeon. The Cooper’s looked around warily, then took off without the pigeon. The Cooper’s had not reached her tree when an adult Red-tailed Hawk landed on the ice next to the pigeon. The Red-tail scanned the sky overhead, then climbed atop the pigeon's prone body. After a moment, the Red-tail took flight with the pigeon in its talons. The Cooper’s was going to have to hunt a second time on that day.

The Rock Pigeon is the recipient of much odium, and the victim of widespread prejudice. But the trouble with hatred and prejudice, is that they are almost always based on ignorance. We should also know that there are many people who are enamored of pigeons for various reasons. In future weeks, I will write more about the Rock Pigeon’s quite fascinating history and biology.

In the meantime, I would suggest that you do not automatically exclude the Rock Pigeon from your definition of Good Birding.