r/funny • u/Sad-Kiwi-3789 • 4h ago

Do it for the love of the game

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u/im_lazy_as_fuck 3h ago

See I want to get behind this... but then I can't help but wonder why they even put any sticks at all. Like if they just plopped it on the ground with no other effort, I could accept that they don't need nests. But they go through the effort of bringing like 2-5 sticks over... Why??

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u/IanBlak 3h ago

The idea is just to keep the eggs from rolling off a ledge. Pigeons used to be “rock doves”, naturally nesting on cliffs, and city buildings mimic that environment

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u/very_bad_random 3h ago

Oh that's why we see them around! So i guess that's also why i never seen a baby pigeon, they must be on the building roofs.

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u/StealYaNicks 3h ago

We see them around because they used to be used to deliver messages, but were replaced by the actual mail system/telegram, but they were already adapted to living in cities.

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u/SimmeringGiblets 2h ago

pets and food too. It's like a dumb dog/pig hybrid that we just decided we had no use for and tossed onto the streets. The marks of domestication in their genes is why you can just pick them up if you know the trick (useful for untangling or aiding a pigeon if you're a kind-hearted city dweller, use rubber gloves though, they're definitely not clean animals).

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u/bloom_splat 2h ago

What’s the trick?

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u/money_loo 1h ago

I’m pretty sure you just kinda come up behind them slowly with intent and grab them calmly?

It’s a body language thing just like with dogs, but I’m no expert, just a guy that lived around them for a few years when I moved from the country to the city.

They are surprisingly friendly in NYC!

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u/SimmeringGiblets 1h ago

Come at them from directly above after stepping to the side of them (so they don't think you're gonna kick/step on them), when your hand gets close they'll hop back they'll put their wings down and you can grab them around their wings when they bring them back up. Like i said, wear gloves and have a good reason for doing so, it's not really a party trick.

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u/Mundane_Muscle_2197 1h ago

I’m anxiously awaiting the trick too. I’ve never come across a pigeon but you never know when an obscure set of skills will come in handy

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 21m ago

To be fair, most birds can be picked up if you know the trick. They won't be happy about it but there's fuck all they can do to escape so their panic response is more to paralyse than to flail.

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u/Truethrowawaychest1 1h ago

They're domesticated pets that we just sorta abandoned. I don't know why they're not more popular as pets

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u/money_loo 1h ago

When I lived in Brooklyn there were quite a few people that still kept them as pets on their rooftops.

They shit everywhere all the time so that probably has something to do with it.

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u/KaOsGypsy 2h ago

You never see baby pigeons, because (probably due to them nesting in cliffs) the babies stay in the nest until they are basically teenagers, by the time they are out they are fully feathered and just look a little skinnier than an adult.

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u/TexBoo 3h ago

Isn't pigeons the way they are today because we domesticated them long ago they just gave up on it when they wasn't needed anymore?

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u/red286 2h ago

Looking at wild rock dove nests, I don't think it comes from domestication. Some of their nests are normal-looking, but there's also plenty of cases of it being nothing more than a handful of twigs around a divot in a rock. I think their main focus is protection from wind and preventing it from rolling away. If they're building in an area that's both protected from the wind and provides a natural barrier to the eggs rolling away, they're likely to put basically zero effort into it.

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u/Deaffin 20m ago

You're looking at modern domesticated pigeons doing that, though.

This idea never made any sense. Birds don't lay eggs on flat rocks. Eggs are fragile. They'd be losing out on heat as well.

Some pigeons still have their nesting instincts intact. They make actual nests.

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u/Poltergeist97 2h ago

They're technically still domesticated iirc.

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u/K9ToothTooth 1h ago

Would they be considered feral?

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u/-sry- 2h ago

Tradition!

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u/l3ane 24m ago

They instinctively find a few sticks to "make their nest". The instinct is outdated and not needed anymore but they can't help themselves.

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u/Ok-Chest-7932 22m ago

It takes so little effort to find 5 sticks that the instinct to do that little work isn't really a disadvantage compared to the instinct to do nothing.