I love pigeons, and I’m understandbly quite excited that a nice pigeon couple (I’ve named them Marianne and Vic Farino) have decided to move into my window sill. It’s a wide sill in the corner of the building, sheilded from wind and rain, a perfect place. But this blessed event has lead to some questions.
Are pigeons monogamous? It seems that the male is working on building the nest every day, but he’s not really “Around”.
When I first saw them there, there were just two eggs on the ledge with them and like, four sticks. By the afternoon the nest was woven with leaves and sticks and everything. Do birds only build nests when they’re in immediate need of one? And how do they know that they’re going to be needing one soon?
Do the females have food brought to them in the nest? Because she is ALWAYS there, always, all through the night and day (I’m assuming she just poops there too)
I can’t wait to see these eggs hatch! Baby pigeons!
They do tend to be monogamous ( a lot of birds are, really - more or less ), at least in a given season, in which a single pair will often raise multiple clutches.
Usually the male brings the nesting material, which the female then arranges.
Two eggs is standard for pigeons.
Most birds build the nest in advance ( for obvious reasons ), but as pigeons are cliff dwellers they have a bit more leeway and are a little more haphazard. So yeah, they tend to do it at the last minute. As to how they know, I’m not sure what the exact physiological cue is that triggers the behavior, but it certainly isn’t an intellectual decision :).
That’s unusual. My understanding is that the male and female switch off, with the female taking a longer shift. Maybe you’ve just missed the male.
One of the unusual features of the columbidae ( pigeons and doves ) is that instead of feeding their babies bugs and the like, they instead produce “crop milk” to feed them - a kind of thick, high protein, milky substance made in the crop at the bottom of the throat.
I’ve had pigeons nest on my balcony twice. On one occasion there was a male and two females. And from what I saw of the “courtship” in both cases, let’s say it’s just as well you missed it.
I had a pigeon couple nest on my balconey a couple of years ago. They had the 2 eggs, both hatched but only one of the birds - Howie - actually made it to adulthood. He was totally comfortable with me going out there, but one day I let my bunny, Benny, hop around on the balconey and he (the bunny) scared the crap out of the bird.
Howie left, never to be seen again. I had another bird nest in a planter, but both of those babies died.
I had some pigeons on my sill once, also. Maybe they were exceptions, but they made a shockingly shoddy nest which was usually not very clean. The kids survived it, though.
