ChrisKten
It's true, I quite like Pigeons
I think the title is what I mean, but I've a feeling it isn't|=)|
I'm not sure how many this will interest, as it concerns Feral Pigeons, but I'll post it just in case.
There's lots of Feral Pigeons in my garden, and I find them easy to get close to; so it's easy to observe their behaviour. I've posted often about how smart and adaptable Pigeons are, but I've also noticed something that might be evidence of Pigeons adapting genetically (assuming that's the correct term).
I would think that various Seeds/Corn/Maize would be a natural food for Pigeons, and it would be the first food item encountered by a Pigeon that's just left the nest. So the youngsters would naturally recognise seed as food, and be capable of eating it. But this isn't the case when the young birds first turn up in my garden. Even though they see the other Pigeons eating the seeds, they either can't work out how to pick it up, or don't seem to recognise it as food. OTOH, as soon as I throw out bread they head straight for it and eat it without needing to learn from the other Pigeons who are busy eating seeds.
This happens with every young Pigeon, and the behaviour persists for days, even weeks. I considered that they might have encountered bread in the nest, but AFAIK Pigeons aren't fed bread or any whole food items, they're fed on crop milk. So it would appear that due to bread being the most common food item fed to Pigeons by Man, that they've now adapted better to eating bread than eating seeds.
So, have Pigeons changed over the years? Or am I jumping to conclusions?
I'm not sure how many this will interest, as it concerns Feral Pigeons, but I'll post it just in case.
There's lots of Feral Pigeons in my garden, and I find them easy to get close to; so it's easy to observe their behaviour. I've posted often about how smart and adaptable Pigeons are, but I've also noticed something that might be evidence of Pigeons adapting genetically (assuming that's the correct term).
I would think that various Seeds/Corn/Maize would be a natural food for Pigeons, and it would be the first food item encountered by a Pigeon that's just left the nest. So the youngsters would naturally recognise seed as food, and be capable of eating it. But this isn't the case when the young birds first turn up in my garden. Even though they see the other Pigeons eating the seeds, they either can't work out how to pick it up, or don't seem to recognise it as food. OTOH, as soon as I throw out bread they head straight for it and eat it without needing to learn from the other Pigeons who are busy eating seeds.
This happens with every young Pigeon, and the behaviour persists for days, even weeks. I considered that they might have encountered bread in the nest, but AFAIK Pigeons aren't fed bread or any whole food items, they're fed on crop milk. So it would appear that due to bread being the most common food item fed to Pigeons by Man, that they've now adapted better to eating bread than eating seeds.
So, have Pigeons changed over the years? Or am I jumping to conclusions?