Day 95 - Fat Birds Do Fly

spot the pigeon

Pigeons are really skittish creatures...which I suppose is why there's still so many of them about.  It's not a bad survival trait, skittishness.  Most prey animals have it to some degree.

Pigeons are quite clearly prey animals, and we humans have been a significant predator of them.   Of course we don't eat pigeon much any more, and it may be that raptors such as the sparrowhawk are their main predator now.

But we used to eat them, by the billion. 

The Passenger Pigeon was a North American pigeon species, around the same size and shape as a collared dove.   Two hundred years ago, it was possibly the most populous bird on the planet.   One flock observed in Ontario in the 1860's, was estimated to be 300 miles long and contain around 3.5 billion individuals. 

By the early 20th Century, they were extinct. 

Long story short, we (European emigrants to the New World) destroyed their habitat through mass deforestation, then harvested them into oblivion as a cheap food source.

The last one died in captivity in 1915. 

We should be ashamed of ourselves, if not for our lack of compassion, then for our utter stupidity and short sightedness. 

Yet all we hear from North America now is "Greatest Nation On Earth", and "Best Country That Ever Existed!", and other such jingoistic, demonstrably and obviously untrue propaganda...

Humans...sometimes I despair.

But I digress (that's so not like me)...so, back to the plot. 

What I find intriguing about the skittishness of pigeons (and birds in general), is that genetically, they've evolved from predators.

There are around 10,000 species of birds in existence now.  And they're all descended from a single species, Archaeopteryx. 

And Archaeopteryx is descended from one of the most well known of predators (thanks to Jurassic Park)...the Velociraptor.

Isn't that amazing - that all modern birds, almost universally twitchy and easily spooked, share the same genetic bloodline as such an infamous, carnivorous predator?!

Ok, so in fairness we must acknowledge that Spielberg exaggerated their size, look, and behaviour (artistic licence, don'tcha know?), but still, facts are facts, whether we want them to be or not. 

I don't know if the cheeky chap in my photo was aware of my hand and camera in the window - I was careful not to show myself at all, as they take off at the slightest human activity.   But I think I managed to avoid spooking him...although it turned out I couldn't get a brilliant shot of him either. 

But there he is, one of our feathered neighbours, a regular visitor, looking anxious and askance at the odd looking dark rectangle hovering in the window. 

He's a big, fat Woodpigeon, for those who are interested. 

Huey said that everybody knows fat birds don't fly, but it turns out he doesn't know what he's talking about...within about five seconds of taking this shot, and before I could get anything better, he did the usual distinctive, flappy, clattery pigeon take off, and there he was, gone. 

Later, little fat bird!