I drive a route through Cicero, IL, on 16th Street, through an industrial area (mostly), and the light poles are on one side of the street through part of the route. Noticed the other day that a flock of pigeons all roost on ONE pole. Just ONE pole, on the stretch from Laramie to Central. No other pole, and no pigeon ever, to my notice, perches on any other pole. Now, I’m curious … why? I’ve never noticed much organization among pigeons, so this is a new one on me.
How many pigeons can fit on one lamppole?
Pigeons like to be cool. The way you know you’re cool is if there are a bunch of other pigeons on the same branch/wire/lightpost as you. The more pigeons, the cooler it is, and the less cool any pigeons who have to perch elsewhere are. Q.E.D.
Or it could be the safety in numbers thing. Pigeons are prey birds, and will flock as a predation survival technique. No idea why that pole, however. Pictures might help, if you really want to know.
A lot of people feed pigeons they will often perch where they can see when the feed come out.
Birds of a feather flock ‘together’. That’s all I got.
That’s all you need. As was said, pigeons are social creatures that live in flocks. They’re also creatures of habit and once they find suitable perches, they stick with them. Why that particular pole and not it’s immediate neighbors? Only they know. Maybe environmental factors, maybe just normal randomness.
I’ve often watched flocks of pigeons settling down on a perch and there is generally a lot of jostling about for position, which I see as evidence of social hierarchies.
Pigeons of a feather most definitely flock together.
Safety in numbers, basically. By staying close together they ensure that at least some birds are looking in every direction to watch for predators. Also, if a predator such as a falcon attacks and the flock takes flight, it’s more difficult for the predator to pick one bird out of a flock rather than zero in on a single bird.