Rock Dove

Temperatures were a bit colder today in town, staying just below freezing, and the mountains look like they are getting some snow.  But Laramie is all brown and gray and tan and brown, and some of the most colorful things around are the rock doves, Columba livia.

Thinking of these birds calls to mind great feral flocks in big cities, filling Trafalgar Square or the Piazza San Marco.  But small town Laramie has its share of these common pigeons, too, who seem to find plenty of attics, garages and barns in which to roost.

According to Whatbird.com, the pigeon has associated with humans for more than five thousand years.  I know some people who think of them as feathered rats, full of disease, but I think they only cause real problems when their numbers get too high and their droppings start to pile up.  Some cities have outlawed feeding them because the numbers were getting out of control (too few predators!).

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology argues for the relative merit of rock pigeons:  "Recent research indicates that pigeons may have some cognitive abilities comparable to three-year-old children. Pigeons depend on humans for food and nest sites, resulting in little competition with native birds. Where they aren’t poisoned, they supply nourishing food for urban raptors."  Laramie's population seems reasonably sized, since we have fox, coyote, hawks, and, of course, cats.  So, although they are an introduced species, I think we should cut them some slack and throw them some crumbs on occasion.

For those of you looking for high scoring Scrabble words, baby pigeons are called "squabs".