Pigeon babies

Most people have seen a baby bird or two. They may fledge a bit early and sloppily make their way across your yard, or better still, maybe their n00b parents build a nest in a flowerpot on your porch or something. Pigeons, on the other hand, are very good at hiding their babies. This is mainly because they like to nest in crevices, or, lacking a nice cliff, the earthquake retrofitting gaps in freeway concrete. I was lucky enough to find a pigeon nest in the eaves of the Lake Merritt nature center and I attempted to document it, with limited success.

I knew that it must be around time for the baby pigeon(s) to hatch, so every few days I would check back at the nest to see if I could see any action. Usually, though, the nest would be unoccupied. If I hung around for a bit, I would see two pigeons, also nonchalantly hanging around, whistling and looking the other way...

A recent study indicated that mockingbirds can recognize individual humans who mess with their nests. I wonder if pigeons can do the same?

Anyway, I FINALLY caught one in the act, lasciviously regurgitating crop milk right in public. Yes, that blurry yellow thing on the right is the baby.

Well, I couldn't get any good pictures of the developing baby, but luckily, Wikipedia has some. And boy are they gross. Baby pigeons are even freakier than other baby birds, due to the developing cere, or "freaky bump on top"! What is that thing for? I'll get back to you.

Later, when Pigeon Jr. was almost ready to leave the nest, I got some better shots:


Check the landing gear...
Check the tail flaps...
...warm up the wings... and...

...FLAPPITY!
Uhm, yeah. False alarm. I'm not flying anywhere just yet.