“Most denizens of New York describe their city’s pigeons alternatively as ‘dirty,’ ‘filthy,’ and ‘disease-ridden.’ Although pigeons attempt to groom themselves daily, they do in fact poo in their own nests. Combine that with the perilous life of scavenging in a grimy, sooty city, and you can understand why some city pigeons look less than manicured. One urban aphorism often applied to the rock dove is the regrettable moniker ‘rats with wings.’” [page 129]

And, yes if you lived in the city living on scraps of pizza, discarded donuts, and leftover mystery meat sandwiches, your poop would probably not smell too lemony either.

“It’s difficult to tell if it’s the pigeons or their excrement that truly p*sses people off. After all, it’s the dropping, not the pigeons, that blanket cities with unsightly noxious splatter. And it’s their acidic dung that eats through stone and metal, corroding buildings, monuments, and (gasp!) automobile paint. It’s also fertile ground for dangerous parasites and infectious bacteria.” [page 130]

So, the point is that pigeon gets a bad reputation simply by surviving in our cities, much like the residents. Admittedly, their poop output is a problem for maintenance of public squares and other accouterments of urban life, but beyond that, the pigeon is a remarkable animal whose life has been intersected with mankind since the beginning.

Pigeon friend or foe, a thorough reading of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman [2006, Grove Press, 248 pages] will do more to rehabilitate the pigeons’ reputation than any one article or review can.

Blechman is well aware of the pigeon’s more nefarious abilities (he was once pooped on while on the way to a job interview), but he is also, through this book, a well-rounded advocate for them. He writes of the pigeon’s history, its relationship to man in times of war and peace, and its social nature. He delves into its surprising athletic abilities, and explores its suffering under cruelty that is usually dismissed with a "they're just pigeons" defense. This is a remarkable and quirky read, one that kept me interested from start to finish with its surprising cast of characters and Blechman’s “fair shake style of reporting” on the entire pigeon experience.

True or False Notes on Pigeons (see “Introduction: Pigeonholed,” pages 1-15)

1. The pigeon is actually a rock dove. Its name is derived from the French translation of the English word “dove.”
2. The pigeon has been worshipped as both a fertility goddess and a sign of peace.
3. A pigeon delivered the results of the first Olympics, and also word of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.
4. Pigeons served with distinction in both World Wars, saving countless lives.
5. Darwin used pigeons as a basis for his theory of evolution.
6. Pigeons are amazing athletes, capable of covering 500 miles at over 60 miles per hour, finding their way home with internal navigation only.[How pigeon navigation works is still a mystery to scientists, though some theories include magnetic and other natural forces.]
7. They taste really good. Some people pay a premium for “squab.”
8. They mate for life with a miniscule divorce rate.
9. They’re much smarter than you think.
10. They are survivors, tracing their lineage back to the days of the Dodo bird [page 122].

And one more:

Fourteen years after Buttons’ death, Martha, the last of her persecuted species, died a lonely death in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. . . . She was twenty-nine. It’s the only instance in history when the moment of a species extinction is known: September 1, 1914, at about one p.m. The world’s last passenger pigeon . . . .

It was a seemingly incomprehensible, not to mention heartbreaking, end to what was once the most populous bird in the Western Hemisphere and perhaps the planet. It is estimated that when Europeans first arrived in North America, there was as many as five billion passenger pigeons constituting as much as 40 percent of the continent’s bird population.” [page 118]

Blechman immerses himself in pigeon culture, with chapters devoted to looking at all aspects of the pigeon experience. He spends time with those that love them [racers, breeders and fanciers, and the truly eccentric pigeon people (mostly feeders, activists, and advocates)], those that revile them (shooters), and those that earn their livelihood through them [food ("squab") and feed purveyors].

And, by going deep in the pigeon culture and assorted sub cultures, he does a thorough job of leaving the reader with no excuse to hate pigeons again. These are remarkable birds and man’s irrational dislike of them is not warranted by the empirical evidence. There’s no reason to avoid coexisting with them peaceably.

Dove cotes (a roosting place) date back hundreds of years and are found throughout Europe. The Romans had them as did the Celts and Saxons. A number of cities have refurbished or rebuilt theirs for modern pigeon control use, as a way to reduce problems associated with droppings, etc. They give the pigeons a place to nest but ban public feedings. With food scarcer, the pigeon will mate less, thereby reducing its population naturally.

Pigeon droppings can also be improved by feeding them the type of the diet they require: nuts and bird seed with assorted nutrients and vitamin supplements. All of the pigeon people Blechman encounters (racers, feeders, breeders) are concerned with feeding their birds the proper diet.

Blechman travels from the Bronx to modern Europe, from rural Pennsylvania to Hong Kong and in between as he documents the people, traditions, and cultural lifestyles surrounding pigeons. It makes for some truly bizarre introductions. He goes to pigeon fairs and pigeon shoots. He attends races and tours a pigeon slaughterhouse.

Some of the more interesting moments involve his interviews of people within the diminishing racer community, as well as his quality time spent with pigeon activists and advocates. He humanizes the people who organize and take part in pigeon shoots; a tradition that has now gone underground in much of the U.S.

One side-trip that he treats with a certain amount of humor involves his frustrating attempts to interview America's number one pigeon fancier, Mike Tyson.

Pigeons is a book of quirky investigation into the eccentric people associated with a bird known for its sociability. It’s well worth reading; pigeon fan or not (four stars).

Sources
www.andrewblechman.com

Recommended: Yes