War memorials to pigeons

Monument to pigeon solders - Lille, France

War memorial to pigeon  - Brussels

Carrier Pigeons Turn Cameramen - World War One

After looking at the number of visitors that have visited my blog about War Pigeons - it wins as the most visited.  So here are some more fun photos and information about how pigeons helped the war effort - Carrier pigeons turned cameramen.  These are articles dated from 1930's

How to Raise A Baby Pigeon

Louis Bastille

We found this baby pigeon on July 14th while on our way to watch fireworks for the Bastille day celebrations, thus we named him/her Louis Bastille.  You can't know at the sex of a pigeon until it is full grown.

 For the first few days I carried Louis in a sling to hold him close to my heart, which calmed him down.

  

He also liked to ride on my shoulder.  

I figured that Louis was 2-3 weeks old when we found him.  Here he is after about a week with us.

 Feeding a baby pigeon

Getting food prepared and beginning to feed a baby bird right away is of utmost importance for keeping the bird alive.  Different birds eat different things.  Pigeons eat seeds, so this is lots easier than rescuing a bird that eats bugs.

Get ahold of some bird seed, ideally seed for pigeons or doves, and grind it into a powder.  I use my coffee grinder.  Mix some water with it to make a paste.  Cook an egg and mix the yoke to the paste.

Take a plastic bag and put the mix in the corner and tie it off.  Then cut the corner and use this like a pastry bag to squeeze the food into the beak.

Wrap the bird in a cloth so you can hold it while you feed it.  With one hand pry the beak open and stick a finger in it to keep it open.  With the other hand squeeze the food into the side of the beak as far down its throat as possible.  

Louis Bastille is playing hid and seek while still wrapped in a cloth I used for keeping it from squirming while I fed it. 

In the beginning you will need to feed your baby bird every 2-3 hours. It is not necessary to feed it at night, just be sure to feed it a lot before you put it to bed and again in the morning.  Don't worry about feeding it too much - it has a crop where it holds the food and you can see or feel how much there is.  

It's important that the baby pigeon has other pigeons around so it knows that it is a pigeon.

After a while, once your pigeon can fly a little, it will want to perch on a stick during the day.  

A basket with a handle works well for a portable perch - since you can put a napkin in the basket to catch the poops. 

In this photo Louis is sitting in his water bowl.

Eventually your bird will begin to peck at seeds and drink water.  Louis began drinking water and pecking at seeds after a couple weeks.  I ground the seeds so they were smaller pieces.  At first he just pecked, but didn't pick any seeds up.  Once your bird can eat on its own, you will still need to continue to feed your bird for another week, as it will not get enough nutrients.  

When I saw Louis sitting in his water bowl, I figured he wanted to take a both, so I put a dish of water out and he did take a bath.  

Once Louis could fly better, he chose our coffee machine as his new home.  Pigeons are cliff dwellers, which is one reason they like to live in cities: lots of ledges.  

Louis started venturing out into the big world before he had tail feathers.  He had a hard time flying and we were very worried about him because of the cats in town.  We had to rescue him twice when he flew to a ledge but didn't quite make it.  

He spent his first outing flying to and sitting in a gutter behind our house.  At least we could still see him.   Once your bird is flying you can only hope and pray it will find it's way to a flock and live the life of a free and wild pigeon.  

After a month, Louis Bastille is still an adolescent bird, but living in the wild. He comes every day and sometimes stays for several hours. I still can hold him to my chest and he is very content to stay there. 

It is a great pleasure to save a baby birds life.  I hope that this inspires you to take the necessary steps to save a baby pigeon if you ever you find one.  They are the perfect pet - free to live in nature and also able to return and visit, giving you many years of happiness.   The average age of a pigeon living in the wild is about 12 years.  

Mike Tyson

I was doing some research on eating vegan and came across this photo of Mike Tyson, who raises pigeons.

Jim and I continue to have our flock of pigeons, with Henry and Snap Dude eating out of our hands. Snap Dude, left, has been with us for about six years. Henry, right, is the offspring of Pierre, the baby bird I first rescued and raised in 2004.

Each subsequent summer has brought new pigeons into our life,as they quite literally 'fall from the sky' onto our doorstep.

Racer Five

That’s how a pigeon that we named, Racer Five, arrived mid july. Jim saw him on the road in front of our house unable to fly, with a cat nearby perched and ready to pounce. He didn't resist when Jim picked him up, as he was used to being handled by people; he was someones racing pigeon. Turned out Racer Five was on route from Orlean to Pau, 900 kilometers, and was two-thirds his way home. We found this out after we called the number off the green band on his leg and talked to the owner. He told us the bird was probably just tried and over heated, and asked if could we keep it till it was able to fly; could be a week or two. So I set up a corner in the kitchen with newspapers a water bowl and food. The pigeon seemed to know to stay on the paper, except when we left the door to the front room open and he would go hide somewhere and we would have to then find and chase him around to get him back in the kitchen. He didn't seem so interested in the food we gave him, and only ate when he was out on the terrace with the other birds. Because he couldn't fly we always had to bring him inside when we weren't around, due to the cats that frequent our terrace knowing there are pigeons to eat. After a couple weeks Racer Five was spunky and healthy but still not flying. We finally realized he had a broken wing after we tried dropping him from a few feet to see what happened. Well, how else could we know? We then we knew we had a problem: the owner would have no use for a racing pigeon that didn't fly and we couldn't keep the bird. We called a friend who keeps pigeons and asked her if she would take him, she came by one afternoon and we boxed him up and sent him off to his new home.

Tai Tai

The same day we got Racer Five settled in his new home we got a call from Mary Claude, a friend who's home is a designated official bird rescue sight. She had raised a baby pigeon by hand and now it was ready to join a flock, but there weren't any other pigeons where she lives. Mary Claude has a way with birds, she even kind-of looks like a bird. She has raised several birds that have returned to nature. But she bonds with her birds in a way that, after they go back to nature they are known to stop by her house during migration just to say hi. I must admit I was a bit jealous when she told me her pigeon rode around on her shoulder; I've never gotten our birds to do anything but eat out of our hand. Even Pierre, who I raised by hand, and I wanted to believe loved me like a mother, was really just interested in getting a free hand out. But she told us, what began as fun - the bird following her around or riding on her shoulder, soon became a problem as the bird would not let her alone, it shit all over their house and showed no signs of returning to nature.

Mary Claude asked if she could to bring Tai Tai over to our house and introduce it to our flock of pigeons, since it had not encountered other pigeons, it apparently didn't know it was a pigeon. When she first let Tai Tai out of the cage on our terrace, the bird sat on Mary Claudes head, then shoulder and was biting her finger - another irritating activity it had developed. Then it flew off to a roof behind our house and sat with the other pigeons, flew back and landed on my head this time, before flying off again not to be seen the rest of the after noon. We assumed success. NOT

Jim noticed the mentally retarded man, who lives behind our house, sitting on a stoop with Tai Tai on his shoulder laughing that the bird was biting his hand. The next day the same woman who took Racer Five showed up at my door with Tai Tai in her arms. She had been at Le President Cafe on the corner and Tai Tai was there walking on tables, landing on peoples heads and biting peoples fingers. Some kids had captured the bird and were tormenting it, so she rescued it and brought it to our house. I said, "I know that bird.", then explained the history: that Tai Tai didn't know it was a pigeon and wanted to hang out with humans, which was all it had know until the day before. Tai Tai was frightened and shaking from her experience. OUr freind then offered to take Tai Tai with her to keep, as she had done with Racer Five. So we boxed her up in a real wicker pigeon carrier I found in the basement of our house.

Yesterday I saw the woman with who took the birds and she reported that both pigeons are doing fine; Racer Five seems happy runnings around on the floor of the cage retired from his racing career and Tai Tai is slowly getting the hang of being a pigeon, although she will have to remain in a cage as she will probably always land on heads and have the habit of biting people.

Returning to France, and our pigeons, for the summer

That is Jim with Pierre, the pigeon we raised, on the left and Snap Dude on the right.

We returned to our home in France this May and within an hour, Pierre and Snap Dude were on our terrace to greet us.  Maurice, Pierre's wonderful partner for the past five years, never showed up. We assume Maurice didn't make it though the winter, and we wondered if Pierre had already chosen a new partner or if perhaps she and Snap Dude, Maurice's competition for top pigeon, would get together.  

For one week we enjoyed Pierre's company, then we took off for a week trip to the Camargue and when we returned, she was no longer around.  We assume that she left the flock to find a new partner.   

In the mean time, one of Pierre and Maurice's progeny, Henry has taken to eating out of our hands, and competing with Snap Dude for top billing.  

Life goes on,  but I can't but hope that Pierre comes back someday for a brief visit, if not to stay.  And if we don't ever see Pierre again, we at least have Henry and Snap Dude to continue to entertain us.  This is a picture of Henry:

Pigeon Portraits from around the world

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. There are many birds here in Bodega Bay, home of Hitchcock's famous film, The Birds, but not many pigeons. Besides I'm working on my children's book about Pierre the baby pigeon and life in France.

My friend, Susan Dorf, just sent me these photos of Pigeons San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. And this has prompted me to add a new blog that I will add to with my photos or others photos of pigeons around the world.






And here are some more pigeons photos from around the world:

Amsterdam

France

On our terrace in France