Recent pigeon situation on patio. 0/10 nest. If the baby pigeon could talk, it would sound like the baby in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The previous nest was built out of q-tips and zip ties.
Its a lack of danger. They have no need to be safe. Nothing is out to hunt them. Its not much grass bushes or deserts; all roads with food left over. The military did this. More Foxes, Cats or Raccoons let them do the work. They would have to learn something. Again; make the military do the work.
As I type now, I have a nest in the wreath on my front door for the second year in a row. We are reduced to using the back door so the stupid thing doesn’t fly into the house when we open the door. 🙄
Have one couple here that come back year after year but as far as I can understand place their nests in such a way that the magpie gets to it every year and sometimes seemingly more than once each season.
But the real problems are the seagulls whose chickens leave too early and then the parents will attack everyone walking in the street so even good hearted people like me don't are tempted to think good riddance when it inevitably gets run over.
Their nature never meant for them to build nests at all! They roost on cliffs and only use as much as necessary to keep the eggs from falling off. Nesting birds build them because trees don't have ample space for that.
Thanks for the info! It seems domesticating pigeons has made them want to be around or rely on humans so they flock towards human settlements rather than cliff sides.
Actually that’s why they typically live in human settlements, cities work really well as a substitute for their home environment, huge stone faces with sheer cliffs that work well to protect their eggs from predators.
Lapwings(plovers) in Australia will just lay their eggs on the ground and spend the next 2 months getting pissed at every living thing that passes by. "Bro, you created this problem. Stop trying to take my head off."
Not hard enough!? We bred them as domestic animals to deliver our mail until we no longer needed them, at which point we completely abandoned them to the street gutters and dumpsters. Pigeons deserve much more than they got, TYVM.
Pigeons were domesticated by humans 2000 years ago. they cant live wild just you dog.
It's our fault. Humans did that. Not the dumb animal. The supposedly intelligent, whiney human did that.
It should make you sad.
Pigeons have more medals than any other animal, now we treat the like dirt.
My FIL had a joke about when god had the best building class. He began by saying you get a few sticks, and the dove left for their sticks. Dove are the chicken of bird world, easy food for others.
For some reason I'm irrationally furious at this attack on birbs. You have never made a mattress let alone a roof yet you run your mouth? 😤 They are doing their best and you LEAVE THEM ALONE! 🥺
Oh so timely. A few years ago a robin built a lovely nest above my ext. light so I used the front door until they fledged. This year there were a few twigs up there and a bunch more going down the basement steps. Not sure a brood is going to happen.
I saw random twigs in a stairwell once. They didn’t get cleaned up, but I wasn’t surprised because it was in the stairwell of an open, multilevel garage. I was surprised when I was walking up a few days later and saw an egg in the middle of what I thought was trash and blown in twigs.
Quite a lot of these nests are ingenious and likely just about sufficient. The birds making do in their human controlled environment. Some of the nests are fairly tragic / hilarious though. Between 2 traffic cones... desperation. 💔
In a pigeon’s natural habitat, they typically nest in rocky outcroppings where they don’t have to build particularly elaborate nests, usually some twigs and sticks can work just fine, just as long as it keeps the egg from falling.
🖕Pigeons are sweet perfect angels who only want (and deserve) to be cozy and loved by humans. (Note: she is not dead in the second pic - she’s just fully asleep on her side) Right the wrongs of human cruelty and adopt a pigeon to bring into your home
Those are some fighting words for someone who isn't a pigeon. Like how would they know it's not a good pigeon nest. Maybe your house sucks too according to the pigeon nest metric!
Say what you will, Jason, but we had a pair of doves that came back to a nest above our front door for several years and raised multiple clutches of chicks every year. It wasn’t elegant, but it got the job done. One day a falcon got one of the parents. So sad 😞.
“Nature red in tooth and claw” as the poet said. But yes, I was very sad because the doves had come back every year for several years in a row and I was always happy to see them every spring.
actually, the idea that pigeons are dirty is an old wives tale that originated when people decided that owning a pigeon wasn’t fashionable anymore. they aren’t inherently ”filthy” birds, they’re only dirty because they live on the streets and have to rummage through rubbish for food.
I speak solely from personal experience when I call them filthy (pigeons specifically have crapped all over my deck and everything on it, e.g. covered it in filth)
It's because they evolved to breed on cliff ledges where most predators can't reach and all they need is enough sticks to keep the egg from rolling off the edge. Domestication has nothing to do with it.
Humans may have brought them worldwide but they had no influence on how they build nests, two entirely different subjects. Can’t use one to argue about the other. A bird that is evolved to choose rough or bare spaces is not incompetent just because humans screwed up their home territories.
Pigeons were bred for single-minded stupidity in captivity then released in to the wild in human-dominated environment. This is like making fun of the poor kid whose family couldn't afford to send him to school.
you people need to quit feeding these vermin. you are the ones being cruel to them by making them continue to be dependent. you might as well take all that bread and feed it to the rats at the dump.
???
Pigeons are smarter than this, they're not gonna stop learning to search for food in the city just because someone feeds them bread every so often. Also, calling them "vermin" really shows how little compassion you have for others
From an #Economics, #supply&demand perspective, pigeons don’t NEED to build good nests: THE WORLD IS ALREADY AWASH IN TOO MANY PIGEONS. Therefore, they can afford to be #Meh about construction quality. Big deal if a bunch of those eggs don’t make it. There’s plenty more where that came from.
Pigeons are rock doves in the wild, before we domesticated them. They're not bad at building nests, these are the nests they build the same kind in the wild along rocky cliff sides. This works in both cities and such because it's not far off from the rocky cliffs. They're not bad at making nests.
Pigeons are badly maligned, poisoned, killed, thought of as vermin. They are very smart and have saved human lives as reliable messengers. We have destroyed their habitats. If this this is meant to be funny, it isn't.
Okay not to be annoying but I’m a huge pigeon advocate: pigeons are not in the right habitat. They DO NOT build nests. They naturally live on cliffs. That’s why they don’t need to build crazy good nests, the rocks serve as one. We took these animals out of their home and domesticated them, cont)
And then abandoned them. These birds are not in their natural habitat. WE did this to them. We used their species and when they no longer served us we scattered them to fend for themselves, EVEN THO THEY ARE FULLY DOMESTICATED. There are no more wild pigeons. If you see one on the street it’s feral
Too many people abuse pigeons bc they’re “dirty” or “rat with wings” but that’s FROM us. We did this to them. They used to be loved and respected and then we lost need for them and discarded them. Be respectful to pigeons. They’re good birds just trying to survive in a world we created
If I recall properly, I believe pigeons also build their nests in "poor" locations because they didnt have many natural predators in their original habitat, which also explains why you see videos of them just walking up to falcons and other animals.
Imagine though, pigeons at one point were once symbols of wealth and good luck, now they're just "rats with wings"
Despite what is shown in media, pigeons are actually super intelligent, able to recognize patterns, words and even language to carry out simple tasks or solve problems.
They are also surprisingly tasty. Neighbour is keeping a bunch for meat and I'm quite fond of it, i really wouldn't try this with a city dwelling one tho.
That’s like someone saying that they care a lot about rabbits and protecting them and someone goes “they taste good too!” Like??? Really dude? Do you really need to bring this up in this thread?
I mean, birds as livestock is a big part of domestication and treating livestock well is important.
But the guy is also thinking of a different species of pigeon. Wood doves are the ones typically raised as squab in the America's and UK, the ones in cities are mostly rock doves
Yeah so I’m not really interested in hearing that after I just said I’m a huge advocate for them. People can eat whatever they want but like, I don’t really want that info. It’s a bit tone deaf
seriously? this is a priority for u to post?
like, have u read what’s going on in this world?
this may be how our nests look soon 😟
come on jason k pargin
it’s a fkg pigeon!!
hopefully at least they can survive this global nightmare
not clear that us humans can
Humans are definitely not the problem. Birds can go fuck themselves for not having access to trees and an ecosystem that's existed for millions of years. It's their WORK ETHIC that's the problem. Also, there's no corollary to humans who are doing the best they can with extremely limited resources.
It’s not just the pigeons. Doves build them in the lowest branches of hedges so cats see them at ground level. Build nests in eaves that take direct wind, knocking it to the ground before they hatch. They come back and do it all over again.
When you think about it though, there is no bird birth control, no eggbortion - so if they are not really wanting to parent, being incompetent might be an active choice.
I love how over-the-top you've gone with this. Also the good folks objecting are teaching me a lot about bird behaviour and how some of these nesting descisions might have been made 🕊
Due to the lack of habitat, many birds do build a decent nest, then the "landscaper" or such disturbs it and the bird is panicked to find another space, frantically throws a few sticks together in haste as they must lay that egg inside them.
We literally bred all of thier instincts out of them, made them rely on us, and then threw them back in the wild to fend for themselves. What we have done to doves is incredibly cruel and messed up.
Same thing. Dove = pigeon, one is slightly smaller and set up for a different environment, but we bred them to be reliant on us and then threw them away like trash.
Nest building costs a bird a few hours of work. A human nest costs many years of work. Sadly, we evolved from runty mammals instead of dinosaurs who even had brains in their tails.
I've had them build nests in a hanging flower pot, on a one story building window ledge and (almost) on my car! And I always find out about them when the babies suddenly fly out of the nest, never to return!
regardless of aesthetics, if anyone finds a nest at their door - just a friendly PSA to please leave them be if possible (or call animal rescue if it really needs to be moved), especially if it's an active nest with eggs or chicks. the mother felt safe enough to build a home for her family there 💙
I'm sure someone else has already made this point by now, but pigeons were domesticated then abandoned. That's why they are so terrible at being birds.
Well actually their nest skills are from their instincts, since pigeons originally used to build nests on cliffs where they didn’t need to use a lot of branches
This feels like it could read as an analogy for the cost of living and the inability to provide sufficient opportunity for people's children.
Also it's partially on us. We domesticated them & then kinda just abandoned them after the big wars & had better forms of communication than carrier pidgeon.
Humans did pigeons dirty by kicking them to the kerb all of a sudden when we decided they were dirty after they’d had 5000 years of domestication to forget how to make nests.
wild doves make shitty nests too. It's because in nature they typically nest on cliffs (which they mistake city stoops for) and the only real purpose of the nest is to keep the eggs from rolling off
I recently spotted this pair of idiots trying to build a nest by dropping twigs down the side of a gutter drain. Clearly not the sharpest beaks in the flock.
1. Decimate their natural habitat
2. Throw away well constructed nests that are too close to our homes
3. Bird has to remake a home on a whim while constipated with eggs
4. Birds improvise to survive
5. “Ha, what a stupid ass bird bro”
literally though, and tis attitudes like this that are so blaze about cruelty to animals that aren't humans that leads to discompassion for animals that are humans like us
Because the cost of eggs is so high, people are climbing trees and stealing their eggs. So they're evolving their tactics to feel safer. Hiding on a wreath pretending to be a styrofoam ornament. Between two emergency cones. People always go around them. Razor wire and cactus. Speaks for itself. 🤔
Hey, you leave pigeons alone! It's not their fault, humans bred them and trained them to do jobs that became obsolete, then we abandoned them. The poor babies.
Was coming here to say the same thing! We domesticated them for generations and made them dependent on human care (including building their nests) and then just stopped caring for them.
Poor nest making is a feature of the entire pidgeon/dove family, Columbidae. I can assure you that wild species like Spinifex Pigeons also make really shit nests
Just to quick summarize: The reason why the nests look so low effort is because pigeons, as city birds, do not need to worry about ovivorous predators and have lots of cover already there, so their sole priority is to keep the egg from rolling about, which these "half nests" do well.
The concern of the egg-rolling is because, given their natural patterns, they nest in seaside rock cliffs, so only need a stick at the mouth of their little niche to keep their eggs safe. Raccoons, rats, and opossums are notorious for going after eggs, as are other birds.
It's a bit like the "nest" of a potoo, the funny googly-eyed birds that are internet memes. Without the bird there, it just looks like they plonk an egg down on a stump. Then you see the potoo sit on it and realize its using its natural camo to hide the egg.
Yeah but rock doves build nests in areas that generally are isolated enough where the biggest danger is just to roll away. It's not an issue for them in nature but their habitats became human cities for them, where it is.
I always thought that they weren’t able to build nests because they are cave breeders. I feel so sorry for them. It’s our fault that they are not in their natural habitats. 😞
My friend was a general animal lover. One day they came across an injured pigeon, it let them pick it right up and take it for help. They couldn’t find anywhere that would accept a pigeon to rehab, so they did it themselves. Now they have about a dozen pigeons in various states of rehab 🥲
This is how they always make nests. It's amazing. Every year at my old house I had a pair of doves that would throw a few sticks into an outdoor lamp and lay eggs...the eggs would just roll down to the bottom. But they managed to hatch them.
I was a high school janitor for many years, pre-2010, and one of the wildest things I saw cleaning the roof areas was what I call "the complete life cycle of a pigeon":
There was the nest, an egg, a baby (holy fuck, they're hideous), a parent, and then two feet away was a dead pigeon.
If it’s a mourning dove we hunted by the millions. I wonder if the bad nesting skills is the survivors of the hunts were the ones who didn’t care about nesting hence bad nest skills passed on.
Nah they’re still one of the most abundant birds in the Eastern US. We still hunt tens of thousands a year and the populations are stable. It’s just a case of bad nests being good enough that there isn’t selective pressure to make them better.
Okay wait no- hold on. This one, this one’s got an idea. Keeps away other birds, if there’s a cat then it’ll be stung by the cactus, it’d be better if it was surrounding but man.. I see the vision
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We moved out of our apartment and bought a condo because of a pigeon infestation.
Just tiktoking for a bit.
I find him horribly whiney and I'll informed: Blocked him on tiktok. He's back 🙄
It's our fault. Humans did that. Not the dumb animal. The supposedly intelligent, whiney human did that.
It should make you sad.
Pigeons have more medals than any other animal, now we treat the like dirt.
But... chickens *are* birds...?
🤔
[is sort of a dystopian folksy-doomsy 1-liner]
That's not our fault.
What surprise, estadunidenses do almost the same with each other everyday
Saddest ppl on earth, really
In a world of pollution and poison she’s doing her God Damned best with tragedy just around corner.
Leave her the fuck alone.
AND STOP SAYING I’M “PROJECTING” I’M NOT.
says the human🙄
ffs
A) US-Americans
B) 'Muricans
C) Weeeee
In a pigeon’s natural habitat, they typically nest in rocky outcroppings where they don’t have to build particularly elaborate nests, usually some twigs and sticks can work just fine, just as long as it keeps the egg from falling.
Who is confused, people or birds?
you people need to quit feeding these vermin. you are the ones being cruel to them by making them continue to be dependent. you might as well take all that bread and feed it to the rats at the dump.
disgusting disease spreaders, the lot of you.
Pigeons are smarter than this, they're not gonna stop learning to search for food in the city just because someone feeds them bread every so often. Also, calling them "vermin" really shows how little compassion you have for others
Rats are vermin because they spread disease.
It’s the same for pigeons. Quit feeding them. My compassion is better spent feeding the destitute.
Despite what is shown in media, pigeons are actually super intelligent, able to recognize patterns, words and even language to carry out simple tasks or solve problems.
But the guy is also thinking of a different species of pigeon. Wood doves are the ones typically raised as squab in the America's and UK, the ones in cities are mostly rock doves
(Please leave some nest building material in a corner of your yard.)
like, have u read what’s going on in this world?
this may be how our nests look soon 😟
come on jason k pargin
it’s a fkg pigeon!!
hopefully at least they can survive this global nightmare
not clear that us humans can
https://birdsarentreal.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopj3oNPKa7JVDRHK8Rrg4ciE6bh2bGiq7R7lUDJRXWSMj5SFLfX
Maybe South American pigeons are smarter, idk.
“Stupid dove nest” 😭
We bred them & domesticated them for communication
Imagine what animals think about hümins who are spoon fed life every day 🧐
#🐹
Also it's partially on us. We domesticated them & then kinda just abandoned them after the big wars & had better forms of communication than carrier pidgeon.
https://wired.me/culture/how-humans-betrayed-pigeons/
2. Throw away well constructed nests that are too close to our homes
3. Bird has to remake a home on a whim while constipated with eggs
4. Birds improvise to survive
5. “Ha, what a stupid ass bird bro”
https://defector.com/why-do-pigeon-nests-look-so-shitty-an-investigation
My friend was a general animal lover. One day they came across an injured pigeon, it let them pick it right up and take it for help. They couldn’t find anywhere that would accept a pigeon to rehab, so they did it themselves. Now they have about a dozen pigeons in various states of rehab 🥲
There was the nest, an egg, a baby (holy fuck, they're hideous), a parent, and then two feet away was a dead pigeon.
Nature will still be here when you’re just a bunch of dust and carbon.
Long, long after you’re gone.
So you’re fucked and nature isn’t.
😂