Someone once told me that he’s seen pigeons that have become so morbidly obese that they can’t fly anymore and just waddle out of the way when you walk by. Is he just pulling my leg or has something like this actually happened?
If you are talking about the run-of-the-mill “wild” urban pigeon the story is probably BS. There is no way a pigeon outside of a closed environment could gain enough weight to prevent flight and still survive.
That being said, there are certain breeds of pigeon that don’t have the same ability as the average ones, but they can still fly. My grandfather raised pigeons and always kept a few of an oversized (almost as big as a chicken) variety, and they couldn’t fly much at all. They could get onto a rooftop, or into a tree, but they couldn’t take a tour of the neighborhood.
[Margaret Cho] Baby, You’re too FAT to fly…[/Margaret Cho]
The pigeons in Trafalgar Square don’t usually take off if you walk by them, they prefer to waddle away unless you start to chase them, but that’s because they’re more used to people.