# have you ever seen a baby pigeon?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982 "2004-04-08T16:34:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/1 "2004-04-08T16:34:14Z")
I lived in NYC for over 10 years and never saw a baby pigeon…I asked other NY’ers and they too had never seen one…why is that?? Is it that they don’t leave the nest until they are full grown? or maybe they don’t look like pigeons when they are young so you don’t realize you are looking at one?? Maybe someone who has raised pigeons can help. 🙂 Farmwoman ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/2 "2004-04-08T16:40:29Z")
I used to work in a building which had columns at the top of which pigeons would commonly nest. I often saw nestlings. I don’t recall, however, seeing any birds that looked like “teenagers.” My guess would be that they stay close to the nest until fully fledged and grow pretty rapidly after that. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/3 "2004-04-08T16:41:11Z")
[The master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_069b) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/4 "2004-04-08T16:41:35Z")
> [@Farmwoman](#): > > I lived in NYC for over 10 years and never saw a baby pigeon…I asked other NY’ers and they too had never seen one…why is that?? > > Is it that they don’t leave the nest until they are full grown? That’s pretty much it–by the time the babies are fledged, they look about the same as adults. [Here](http://birds.cornell.edu/ppw/coolfacts.htm) is a page with a picture of some pigeon hatchlings. ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/5 "2004-04-08T16:58:17Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > That’s pretty much it–by the time the babies are fledged, they look about the same as adults. [Here](http://birds.cornell.edu/ppw/coolfacts.htm) is a page with a picture of some pigeon hatchlings. Thanks…mystery solved! 🙂 I always thought that was weird…there must be millions of pigeons in NYC and you would think that you would see one from time to time…even a dead one…but you never do! :o Farmwoman ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/6 "2004-04-08T17:03:37Z")
> [@Farmwoman](#): > > Thanks…mystery solved! 🙂 > > I always thought that was weird…there must be millions of pigeons in NYC and you would think that you would see one from time to time…even a dead one…but you never do! :o > > Farmwoman I saw a dead pigeon in Central Park yesterday. ☹ But it wasn’t a baby at least. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/7 "2004-04-08T17:16:33Z")
Be grateful. I had a pigeon nest next to my office for a while. The babies are \* ugly \*. Not cute and fluffy – just scrawny, unkempt looking creatures clustered together in a big mound o’ pigeon droppings and twigs. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-seen-a-baby-pigeon/238982/8 "2004-04-08T17:32:39Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > I saw a dead pigeon in Central Park yesterday. … Ah, perhaps the spring meeting of some local Tom Lehrer Appreciation Society. > [@](#): > > We’ll murder them all amid laughter and merriment. > Except for the few we take home to experiment. > My pulse will be quickenin’ > With each drop of strychnine > We feed to a pigeon. > It just takes a smidgin! > To poison a pigeon in the park. [http://wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer/evening.html#pigeons](http://wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer/evening.html#pigeons)