Here is a photo I took late this afternoon (Wednesday afternoon). That’s the flower pot. There’s one of the pigeons. The parents have been taking turns sitting on the eggs. This one is the smaller of the two, so we assume it’s the mother. That was an empty flower pot when we left for the North earlier this month; the pigeons loaded in the twigs themselves.
This is actually an excellent location for the nest. That flower pot is largely protected from the wind and rain that we’ve had a lot of these last couple of days.
Perhaps you can provide pictures when they hatch. I’ve only ever seen the kind that leave a square foot of crap on my car in a single dump. Damn pigeons.
With birds, females are usually larger, in some species significantly so. Most likely, that’s the father you’re looking at, although only the pigeons know for sure.
Thanks! So, Dad’s hunkered in for the night out there right now with the kids while Mom’s out running around. It’s usually the other way around in this town.
Dad usually has as noticeably larger chest he puffs out like a bull or a lion. They do take turns sitting on the eggs, and IMHE, the shift change usually happens first thing in the morning and again around 4PM.
Pigeons were domesticated by humans long before cats were and only ‘shortly’ after dogs. Pigeons are man’s second best friend.
Yes, they can deliver 2 eggs a month, year round, if conditions are good. So you can see that raising them for food would be easy for early humans. But they have also been used for long distance communication for thousands of years.
The breeding of pigeons and their ability to go from highly specialized back to ‘normal rock pigeon’ helped Charles Darwin develop his theory of evolution.
Pigeons will foul their own nest but, they do not carry diseases. They don’t carry West Nile Virus or Avian Flu, unlike some song birds.
Pigeons, in the US, are mostly considered feral animals. (domesticated animals running loose) This means they are not protected by laws the way robins are. You can kill pigeons with abandon and in fact, there are gun clubs that find clay pigeons to be boring and trap and shoot real ones. (but that’s OK because they are flying rats)
The abilities of racing pigeons are amazing. Imagine being kidnapped, throw in the trunk of a car with a bag over your head and then, upon release in the wild, you turn around twice and point straight home. Forget flying there non-stop, just be able to point right at where you nest.
Pigeon erradication is mostly a scam. They come and posion the birds but do nothing to prevent other birds from nesting there so you can call them back time and time again. If you don’t want them there, you will have to find a way to screen off the balcony or find where ever it is that their food source is and securing that.
Pigeons like people and other pigeons. That’s why they come to the cities. They like us. But having some on your balcony may also induce other birds to nest there as well.
OH read this book.
The bigger one has the bigger chest. That’s the smaller one in the photo in my link above. It’s still there, too. It’s about 10:15am here; they last switched that I noticed yesterday afternoon.
Ah, wait. It just got up and flew off. Maybe the partner will return now.
No, it just returned with another twig or piece of straw.
They might not carry West Nile or Avian Flu but they are transmitters of a lot of diseases :
The best known disease passed from birds to man is Psittacosis but over 40 more diseases can be passed from feral pigeon to humans, including potentially infectious diseases such as salmonella, tuberculosis and ornithosis.
So, you might love the flying rat, but most people understandably hate them.
They are absolutely disgusting creatures.
A local newspaper covered a story on a rare-ish bird of prey eating another bird in a garden in the town. However, they got their verbs a bit mixed up and described how this hawk had “ravished” a smaller bird, complete with grainy picture of one bird mounting another
Seriously, c’mon. I know lots of people who let their cats & dogs eat of their plate, sleep in the beds, lick their face, and make dinner after having put their hands all over their cat or dog which has been digging shit around a cat box or rolling in shit in the yard.
We’re picking up on their routine now. They seem to switch out about 10:30am and then again in the late afternoon. This means the smaller one has much more sitting time, but I’m sure they’ve worked it out to their satisfaction. They just switched a little while ago – it’s almost 11am here – and the larger one is there now. Even though this is the one with the larger chest, it’s larger overall, so I’ll assume it’s the female. It’s the more nervous of the two; the other one seems to have become more accepting of us humans, although still not happy we’ve come home.
It’s possible to have a larger male/smaller female with birds, just not common. From what you say that may be the case here, but really, aside from who actually squeezes out the egg, pigeon parents share parent duties pretty equally.
Males puff out their chest, they strut more, and they will tend to chase females, but post-mating you’ll see less of that behavior. it won’t cease entirely, but for the near future those two are going to be really, really busy first keeping those eggs warm then feeding the babies.
There was the pigeon rape I witnessed the other day, but that happened quickly and before I started picking up on their differences. They look very similar to each other, but I can see some differences in markings now. The smaller one has definitely become more comfortable with us. The wife went out to water the plants this evening, and the parent on duty fled only to the other side of the balcony instead of flying away.
If you want to make friends offer a little food - rice, bread, that sort of thing. I wouldn’t give them a lot, and they aren’t ever going to be pets, but it might convince them that you aren’t planning to eat them or their young.
Well, we’re not really wanting them to hang around. We’re letting them stay until the squabs are raised, but then we’re taking the flower pot back. So I don’t want to start fraternizing too closely. They’re still crapping all over the balcony.
I seem to vaguely recall the dad gets the day shift so poor tired mom (you try popping out eggs) can get the prime-time food foraging. I could be mistaken.
You’re going to have to make a decision though. Pigeons are companionable and there’s definitely a small instinct in them to allow humans they’re familiar with to be part of their “family.” If you’re not actively trying to kill them, they’ll get used to you and hang out with you just because.
Dad has found a good nesting place to raise his family. You’re stuck. Take the flower pot away if you want. Pigeon twig-nests are very simple and don’t serve much purpose other than to mark off where the nest is and maybe help hold the eggs in place a little. But pigeons will make nests on any flat cliff-like surface that provides a little shelter, so don’t be surprised if you take the pot away and he just builds another twig-nest in the same spot. You may be stuck with this couple until they die, or you take aggressive means to repel them which, in my humble opinion would be a shame. They really are companionable. They won’t hop into your lap for snuggles or anything, but they will hang out with you just 'cause they like you.
As to their differences, the males are often a bit larger with the fuller chest I mentioned, and if you watch them in a flock for awhile, you’ll notice the males chasing the females, puffing up their chests, and if they’re serious about it, the males fan their tail feathers out and drag them along the ground like a broom. If they’re really, really showing off, they grab a twig and present it to the female. Nothing says “love” like a male who can demonstrate he knows how to build a nest. After they’re paired & mated, they don’t do the sexual courtship displays quite so much, but you’ll see a pair sitting off to the side together snuggling and grooming each other, which is pretty cute.
Well, there’s no way we’re turning them out at this point, so if we’re stuck, so be it.
The wife mentioned this to the building management, and they told her this was actually not an uncommon problem in our building. First we’ve heard about it. (But I’ll bet snug, empty flower pots are few and far between.)
(But I’ll bet snug, empty flower pots are few and far between.)