Apparently they normally would nest on rocky cliff edges and stuff so they just need enough material to stop the egg from rolling away. It still looks heaps silly, though.
Explain the doormat now
Well they don’t really care about nesting in the open, obviously, and the doormat is softer and replicates short lichen and/or grass. Soft is clearly better and it also means that the egg can’t roll away.
Was that supposed to be gotcha or something?
You don’t always have to do what Jesus says, you know.
Yes. You have been gotted.
Anything above ground level = cliff, to a pigeon. I bet this is a 2nd+ story entrance to an apartment.
I have never ever seen a baby pigeon. Not even a picture. Where are they hiding them?!
Ever seen a Dodo bird? Imagine that but smaller and more fucked up. The reason for this is because the Dodo bird was a type of pigeon that had developed neotenic traits which combined with island gigantism resulted in the ever beloved but extict island bird we know and nourn today.
Also neoteny is the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood.
Pigeons spend a long time in the nest, so if they survive long enough to leave, they’ll basically look like regular pigeons
At least, that’s what they want you to think
I’ve seen baby doves, which look pretty damn close to pigeons, and I can assure you that they are quite hideous.
For millennia they were beloved pets and messengers. We bred independence out of them and doted upon them. Then we invented the telephone and cast them all out into the wild en masse. It’s amazing they’ve survived this well.
They are as we made them, and as we rejected them.
For real?
Kinda, not really. In the wild, pigeons build their nests on cliffs, so they really only need just enough nest to keep the eggs from rolling off. That’s why they make dopey lil stick piles instead of proper bowl-shaped nests
I’m not an ornithologist, so the following is my own uneducated hypothesis: pigeons haven’t adapted to live in cities, cities just mimic their natural habitats. They’ve survived this well because we’ve made great big terrariums for them
Pigeons are domesticated rock doves. They live on cliffs so the sticks are just there to keep the eggs from rolling away.
Big draw the rest of the owl energy
