I am obsessed with the pigeons here! I was talking with a human when I saw a pigeon, so I stopped and started talking to the pigeon. Thankfully, she understood exactly who I am and waited for me to finish my interspecies moment. When I become interested (maybe obsessed) in something, I start building an index of facts. Here are a few of my favorite pigeon facts:
- Pigeons belong to the family Columbidae, which also includes doves; pigeons are the larger of the two, but scientifically, they're the same.
- There is a National Pigeon Association.
- The American Pigeon Museum in Oklahoma also exists.
- Pigeon fanciers have bred all sorts of distinctive pigeons. Fancy pigeons, they are called, and there are so many different breeds. There are over 800 breeds. Look at the frillback with the curls!
- Pigeons can “assess” art. A 2009 experiment by Shigeru Watanabe showed that “the utterly un-artistic pigeon could be taught to identify ‘good’ and ‘bad’ children’s artwork. How was the pigeon able to perform this feat and why should we care that it did?”
- Pigeons make milk! It is called crop milk, a secretion from the lining of the parent bird’s crop. The crop is a thin-walled, expanding part of the gastrointestinal tract where food is stored before digestion. Flamingos and emperor penguins also produce crop milk. Both male and female pigeons produce crop milk.