project pigeonwatch

although i previously joked about writing a monograph on the mating rituals of the common pigeon due to the amount of time i spend staring at the ones on the roof across from me, there are people who take this stuff seriously. i was looking up how to tell the difference between male and female pigeons and ran across project pigeonwatch at cornell university.

some other interesting reads from their publication birdscope include:

a short, illustrated article on pigeon courtship that finally puts to rest my confusion about this behaviour. and i thought they were two males fighting...

and a longer, intriguing, piece on pigeon courtship from the same publication.

it should be noted that seagulls are also predators of pigeons. i saw a seagull finish off a live one and proceed to eat it a few weeks ago (the pigeon may have already been wounded). pretty gross stuff. also saw a seagull pack off a presumably dead pigeon yesterday.

{January 09, 2004 01:07 PM}