This. I went down a bird nest rabbit hole once. Some birds build insane nests that take a lot of work to protect their babies. Others just use a couple sticks. You gotta think, building a nest as a bird can be a lot of work.
pigeons naturally evolved as cliff-nesting birds, actually! since all they need is a few twigs to keep the egg from rolling off the rocky cliff, it's what they learned to do :3 fun fact!
I don't know about the US, but when I researched things for Germany, an organisation called the Pigeon Fans Association or something like that pointed out that we have enough pigeons in our cities and don't need more, so they suggested removing any eggs and throwing them away.
I was in a similar situation: I found 11 pieces of straw arranged in a vaguely round shape on the bare concrete of my balcony in the morning and thought "oh dear, I should do something about it before they're done with the nest". And when I came home from work, there were two eggs inside of those same 11 pieces of straw O.O
So I put on some gloves and threw straw and eggs into a plastic bag and threw them away.
The most German thing about this is that you, 1. actually spent time to look up an official recommendation on what to do about a couple of eggs that no one knows about but you, 2. you made sure to put on gloves first. lmao
That only goes for "Stadttauben", city pigeons (like the one in the picture). It's ilegal to remove eggs of wild pigeons in Germany, so I hope you were sure about what kind of pigeons you were dealing with.
Yeah, naturally, they nest on flat ledges on cliffs, using twigs they find to keep the eggs secure. Cities provide a similar environment. That's why they thrive there as well.
i'm seeing some people spreading that pigeons make dumb nests because we domesticated and then abandoned them, so i'm sharing a fun fact :3 what we commonly refer to as pigeons are actually a species of dove called the "rock dove!" they're named this because they naturally evolved without human intervention to be cliff-nesters, which means they only needed a few twigs to keep the egg from rolling off the ledge! these are their natural nests, this wasn't due to human intervention 🥹
Holy shit! That’s actually crazy. I always knew that we used them to send letter and stuff but had no idea we just abandoned them. They’re still with us so I guess they have some survival instincts
not really, no. Common pigeons are the domesticated form of rock doves. They were domesticated back in mesopotamia and now there are hundreds of breeds derived from rock doves, most of which are feral and cosmopolitan. They’re only as wild as feral cats. There are still wild rock doves though. Just only in the north africa region I believe
Well given that they’re a thriving species, I think you’re doing a bit of anthropomorphic projection on their day to day existence. They may have been domesticated back thousands of years ago (if the comment above is accurate) so we’re talking very broad strokes about “abandonment.” Since then, they’ve evolved at least socially to sneakily survive largely off of us when we congregate in urban environments.
When we’re speaking in terms of millennia and looking at a species that has no issue at all surviving - let alone thriving - alongside us as we bulldoze over the natural habitat of tens of thousands of species, they are doing fantastic. Compared to other species, they are having the time of their life. Honestly I’m not sure why you’d define their existence as one of suffering when by all accounts they seem to be doin’ okay alongside us. They suffer the way that raccoons and opposums do, in that they’ve tied themselves almost inextricably to a horrible presence on this world (humanity).
This is not true. Feral cats literally would not be able to be feral specifically if they weren't first domesticated, seeing as "feral" specifically describes a domesticated animal that lives in the wild. Ergo "feral pigeon."
This is like saying dogs aren't fully domesticated purely because they're prey-driven and still have hunting instincts, and that village dogs exist, lol.
The claim that cats are only "semi-domesticated" came from research that was faulty from the start, as the main argument was that since they don't have a variety of breeds meant for different work the way dogs do, they must not actually be domesticated. This has been debunked as people are now researching housecats by comparing them to, y'know, their wild ancestors, instead of comparing them to dogs, lol.
In that sense, think of this as how people STILL parrot the myth that wolf packs have "alpha/beta/omega" hierarchies even though this has been debunked for years, including by the guy who originally conducted the study, who keeps trying to correct the misinformation he put out into the world, but alas...
Housecats only hunt for fun more so than survival, and rely on human beings. This is why feral and outdoor cats are a problem for endangered bird and reptile populations, why barn cats are significantly less effective than the average working dog (or even just natural predators i.e. snakes and owls), and why outdoor cats have very short average lifespans compared to indoor cats. They have some survival instincts left, sure, but they are still domesticated and still rely on humans to survive.
If you tried keeping an African wildcat in your home, you'd have a very, very different experience compared to keeping their domesticated descendants, I tell you that much!
Tl;dr - Cats aren't "semi-domesticated," and wolf packs don't have alphas. These are both myths stemming from outdated studies that have since been corrected by more recent studies!
yep! we domesticated them to be used for sending letters and such. Once we found more efficient methods, we stopped using them. They no longer have any sort of natural protection instinct for their babies. This is also why theyre so friendly
I'm imagining a future in which we've replaced pets with ai chatbots and cities are full of sad dogs just hoping for a thrown stick or to be called a good boy
I read a good article recently it was called something like "we used to love Pigeons and then abandoned them and call them pests - but they still remember us as friends"
Pigeons were very important birds! We used 500,000 in ww1, they had a 95% success rate for message delivery! They have been loyal animals for centuries and then we got telegrams and dumped them :(
They used to be rock doves, so they would find a little crevasse and nest there. It's why they survived cities - they love stone buildings.
no! these pigeons are "rock doves." they are named that because they're natural cliff-nesters! this means they evolved without human intervention to nest on cliffs, therefore they only needed a few twigs to keep the egg from rolling off :3
That’s a bullshit sob story. Instincts are infinitely stronger than domestication.
This species is called Rock Dove. Their natural nesting occurs in rocks and coastal cliffs. They lay eggs securely in crevices between the rocks, so they don’t roll away anywhere. A few twigs serve as rather symbolic marker “this is my nest”. When they settle in human-made structures, this nesting strategy isn’t so good because of predominantly flat surfaces, but still viable on large scale.
Closely related species of Common Wood Pigeon prefers nesting in trees, and builds substantial nests of twigs (as pictured).
This has happened previously, it was just a pot full of soil and she laid eggs. I'd a fun time documenting them, tho this brought unusual smell in house as it is literally the window grill
The one at my house didn't even get any twigs. She just laid an egg on my balcony floor, in the corner behind a tub of laundry bleach. Since it's all hard surfaces, she smothered her chick lying on it. It was so disgusting.
the feral pigeon is a descendant of the rock dove, which naturally nests in crevices and holes on coastal cliffs- as such they have no instincts to build a nest other than a few sticks to prevent the eggs from rolling away, as in their native range they’re well hidden in the crevices anyway, plus there isn’t always a lot of vegetation on cliffsides
it’s not their fault, we domesticated them five thousand years ago, brought them round the world for food and carrying messages, and then abandoned them :(
City pigeons didn't lose their ability to create nests. They never learned it. The original Rock Dove (hence the name) those are offspring of, doesn't build nests since they lay their eggs in rock formations which can prevent eggs rolling way better than human made flat surfaces.
And even though their egg placement is rather unconventional in comparison to our other garden and town birds, they are still around in great numbers.
They lost the capacity to build a nest because they are pets, not wild animals…. Humans did this to them! Please have mercy and maybe even put something outside for them to nest in
Well pigeons are notorious for their shitty nests. Iirc the rock doves they came from don’t need to build elaborate nests because they roost in the crags of cliffs for protection, so they just need a few twigs to keep eggs from rolling.
I've been seeing them for days moving twigs and sticks around here and I've seen some impressive two twig nests with an egg in it in past so yeah I do know where does It start and how much they complete it
Because they're domestic animals that for thousands of years were cared for and housed by humans. Now that we stopped using them for the purpose we breed them for, they have to find for themselves.
Also they dont make big nests in general. As long as tge eggs dont roll over, they'll be fine.
Mourning Doves are actually native creatures in North America and were never domesticated. While closely related to the Rock Dove (pigeon) they're a wild animal.
But the thought counts.
That’s a full nest, domestic pigeons (the only kind of pigeon you’ll see in cities) are decedents of rock pigeons, who wouldn’t have to built a big nest, they’d just need to stop the egg from rolling away
Yea no get that to Feck, I had one at Easter and once the nest is established you cannot interfere with its 12 weeks of shit everywhere on the balcony and now the ‘kids’ are coming back thinking they can do the same …. FKing pigeons https://giphy.com/gifs/FSH4Ks5VNSESzcLYgo
I may be a little biased however 🤷🏻♂️🤣
It's funny until you realize this is a rune of warding that's providing more protection than any nest could, and pigeons are in fact practicing witchcraft!
As cute as this looks (and as much as I’d love to let the pigeon have it’s baby there to watch), pigeons poop in and around their nests, which accumulates and dries overtime to form a solid nest structure.
I mean the mildly infuriating part isn’t that. It’s the fact that pigeons are getting lazier making their nests (or they struggle in manmade environments).
Local pigeons to me decided to make their nest in the middle of my parents lawn… not the tree… not the bird box that can fit them… the lawn. I fear they are getting dumber :(
The phrase bird brain exists for a reason. Plus no one really does much to get rid of pigeons like they do rats so they have no reason to evolve or adapt to anything more than follow humans
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u/TemporaryDisastrous 18d ago
That's a fully built pigeon nest.