Pigeons and Doves: Lovey-Dovey and Very Savvy

How many times have we watched public figures on TV open their palms and “set free” a pair of snow-white doves: those eternal symbols of world peace and marital fidelity? But do we have world peace and marital fidelity? Perhaps the birds don’t work!

I have read, that pigeons (blue rock doves) are monogamous and faithful for life; though other versions maintain this fidelity lasts only for a season. I have watched the stout gentleman pirouette and gurgle (“gutur-goo, gutur-goo”) deep in his throat. This courtship display is called “bow-coo”, wherein the male puffs up his breast in front of a lady, who usually flies away. Apparently, this “dance” is how the species recognise each other to make out with the right kind. Usually, the gurgling dance goes on and on before the gentleman realises the lady has fled. He then flies off, lands on another awning and starts again—in front of another lady—who may or may not have been his earlier date. When things work out, a skimpy “nest” comprising a few thin twigs crisscrossed together (through which eggs can easily fall) is put up just about anywhere (including atop my friend’s refrigerator) and soon there is a fat, wheezing squab in the nest demanding every five minutes that it be fed the special “crop milk” the parents produce.

The profile picture of a typical pigeon or dove would reveal a small-headed matronly plump bird with a small beak adorned with a cere (fleshy covering on the top of the beak), dressed in greys, browns, beiges, and even in gorgeous shades of green, maroon, and lemon. They have powerful wings which usually “slap” when they take off.

Pigeons and doves belong to the same family, Columbidae, and scientifically there is no difference between the two. Case in point is the popular blue rock dove (also called the rock pigeon). In many places and languages, however, pigeons are usually seen as being larger than doves. Pigeons and doves range in size from 15 to 75 cm and weigh between 30 gm and 2 kg. The whopping big Victoria crowned pigeon of New Guinea can weigh up to 4 kg, and one such thug kept me incarcerated in the aviary of Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park for 15 minutes by standing in front of the door and refusing to budge.

As for peace-loving: I’ve watched a couple of blue rock doves (males, I presume) try to tear each other’s throats out in a vicious battle. One way of claiming territory as indulged in by the collared dove is to rise vertically from a perch and fly in wide circles descending gradually while uttering a deadly warning, crooning. Pigeons and doves are not exactly armed to the teeth; their plumage is loose and fluffy so an attacker usually ends up with a mouthful of feathers, while the bird flies away.

Worldwide there are, according to different sources, between 316 and 344 species (21 in India) of which 59 are in danger of one sort or another. And while the population of the blue rock dove appears to be exploding worldwide (especially in megacities) and pushing out other local inhabitants, we must always remember the fate of the passenger pigeon of the US. The population of these birds went from an estimated 5 billion to zero between 1800 to 1900, when the last bird standing was shot. And of the completely wacky dodo of Mauritius which men, cats, and dogs gleefully pounced on because the bird couldn’t (and till then didn’t need to) fly.

Pigeons and doves grow fat on a diet of seeds and grains (generously provided by humans), earthworms and small insects (especially species that bob around on the ground), and berries and fruit which are preferred by the more arboreal (and usually more beautiful and difficult to spot) green pigeons.

What fascinates and puzzles us most about these birds is their remarkable homing instincts. They can find their way back to their dovecotes from any strange place they may be taken to and released from, in an astonishingly short time. So much so that pigeon racing is a sport and during the World Wars these birds were used as messengers carrying coded information, which in one case at least saved the lives of scores of trapped soldiers. Julius Caesar is said to have sent news of the fall of Gaul to Rome via pigeon airmail. Many birds were shot in the line of duty; some were given gallantry awards, sadly usually posthumously. In times of peace, mail could arrive by “pigeon post” a practice that apparently was followed in states like Odisha till recently. Pigeon racing was very popular with the Mughal emperors and even today the sport of “kabootarbaazi” is alive and well in the streets of Old Delhi. Pigeon fanciers will release their flocks simultaneously and then whistle them back down and do a headcount. If you now have more birds than you let fly, you win of course and can keep the “captured bird” or negotiate for its return. They are fast, powerful fliers and one report I read claimed that in horizontal flight the blue rock dove can outpace the formidable peregrine!

Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how a pigeon’s GPS system works. For long they suspected (and still do) that the birds were oriented by sensing the earth’s magnetic field. This is because tiny iron crystals were discovered in their upper bills and later, even tinier ones in their inner ears. Then, they used landmarks—river courses, highways, city streets, and even sounds like surf hitting the shore and odours (olfactory navigation) to guide them precisely to their destination.

On further investigation, however, the iron crystals in their bills were found to have nothing to do with sensing the earth’s magnetic field, and the ones in their ears were far too weak to pick it up at all. So, the search is still on.

The blue rock dove has done remarkably well all over the world. Even its cousin, the collared dove—that pale-beige bird that looks like it’s put on too much face powder—has spread across the European continent, apart from being resident in India. Originally, blue rock doves lived on high rocky ledges in the mountains, but nowadays, a gleaming steel and glass skyscraper in New York will do very well, thank you! Though it rarely happens, pigeons can cause lung diseases like histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, and psittacosis via their droppings (which, stink!).

Pigeons and doves may look rather vacuous, but really, they are quite enigmatic.