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Let’s stick with pigeons for a moment.

Occasionally, you see them munching on a pizza rind or some other recognizable discarded food, but most of the time they seem to be pecking at nothing at all.

I am not planning to start a pigeon Facebook enterprise, but unlike virtually all New Yorkers, I do not loathe pigeons and give them credit for living a tough life on the mean and unforgiving streets of Manhattan.

And if you actually stop and look at them, which no one does, their plumage can be quite striking. Yes they are plump and the neck-snapping walk is mind-boggling — what evolutionary rationale could that possibly have? — but they demonstrate an unrelenting pluck to survive in the city that I find admirable.

Just like seagulls, you never see a young or old pigeon, and never a sickly one. They are all the same size and seem in excellent health. I’ve never seen a dead pigeon or a squished one, which is remarkable for all their bicycle- and car-dodging. Not to overthink this, for all of their daily vicissitudes they seem pretty content with their lives, although their expressionless faces could be masking all kinds of nameless dreads.

One activity that seems to definitely give them great pleasure is communal flight. As I look east from our 16th floor apartment, I often see sizable flocks of pigeons soaring in synchronized movements that have no purpose, just banking, turning this way and that, diving and climbing.

They are clearly playing. They will, as a group, alight on a random rooftop, cogitate for a while and then set off on another flight maneuver, happy as clams.

If there is an afterlife, this playful flying would not make me elect to come back as a pigeon. I’m on record as choosing to come back as a chickadee. But if I have no choice and I’m forced to come back as a pigeon, I could handle it. The key, it seems, is a sufficient stream of pizza rinds.

Seagulls seem a lot like pigeons. They are always scamming for food and can fly beautifully. They seem smarter than pigeons and have a more sculpted shape. Gratefully, they have eliminated the disturbing neck-snapping walk, and they are artful at catching food thrown at them by the bored human denizens of Crescent Beach.

Which brings me to a seagull story. It is a third-hand story and its veracity cannot be verified. It was told to me by my nephew on Cape Cod, and he is a known embellisher. There is a thin line between embellishment and prevarication, and I am pretty sure he was sticking to the embellishment side. Not betting my life on that, however.

It starts with a surf-casting fisherman and a nearby observing seagull. The seagull watches as the surf-caster baits up his hook and heaves it into the waves. This is repeated several times with no success, fish-catching-wise. This is where it gets interesting.

This story wants you to believe that a light goes on in the observing seagull’s brain. The light says one, there is food being flung into the air and two, I can fly. Ergo, an intercept is entirely possible. But the light does not fully grasp the concept of “fish hook.”

You probably see where this is going. A perfectly timed intercept is made and the hook lodges in the seagull’s beak, surprising both human and bird actors in this story.

Embellishment alert: The fisherman starts reeling in the seagull and eventually gets it on the beach where a concerned woman assists the fisherman to calm the seagull while he fetches his needle-nose pliers to extract the hook. The seagull is not pleased, and it takes a while to wrestle the hook out.

A moment passes as the humans and seagull digest what just happened. Another light goes on in the seagull’s brain. With good intentions, the concerned woman is carefully holding the seagull but gets no credit for this act of kindness. The light says take a nip of the woman’s cheek and get the heck out of here. End of story.

True story? We cannot be sure.

But it sure beats any pigeon story I know.

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Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter

WOLCOTT — Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter the way one throws out an empty disposable coffee cup — by tossing them into a trash dumpster.

The night caretaker at the northbound Interstate 65 rest area in White County found the first 57 birds in the middle of December as he took the trash out, said Kim Hoover of the Hoots to Howls Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in rural Pulaski County. Some of the birds trapped inside boxes died, she said.

She took the birds and found homes for most of them, keeping the blind and crippled birds at the rehabilitation center.

Then on Feb. 28, the caretaker found more boxes of birds in the same dumpster at the same rest area.

“Same mozzarella cheese boxes. Same person’s name and number on the leg ban,” she said.

The first group of birds found were standing in feces that were caked to their feet and matted in their feathers, Hoover said. It appeared they’d been in the dumpster for a while and were in poor health.

The second group was found in better condition and did not have trash piled on top of the boxes, indicating that they had not been in the dumpster that long, Hoover said.

That person’s name on the leg band is Bahman Ghassab from Dublin, Ohio, Hoover said. The bands also had a telephone number to reach Ghassab. The Journal & Courier called that number on Wednesday, but it is no longer a working number.

But after the find in December, Hoover said one of her associates did call the number, and Ghassab answered.

“He said he sold some birds to someone in Florida and in Illinois,” Hoover said, “and he would not give any more info than that.

“When asked why would you sell sick starving and injured pigeons and better yet why would someone buy them in this condition, the conversation ended,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier contacted John DeCarlo Jr., president of the National Pigeon Association. He checked the association’s membership list, and Ghassab is not a member.

“These birds don’t fly,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier texted photos of the birds to DeCarlo, who is in California.

“I don’t know why they don’t fly,” he said, noting this particular breed of pigeon is the Iranian high fliers.

The Iranian high fliers are capable of flight, unlike the one particular breed that Hoover mistakenly was told the rescued birds belonged to, DeCarlo said.

The birds might not fly because they are sick or are under fed or are under conditioned, DeCarlo said. Or they might have been altered so they can’t fly, he added.

Someone told Hoover the birds were likely part of an illegal gambling ring, but that doesn’t seem likely, according to DeCarlo.

The only gambling in the pigeon hobby is among racing pigeons, and these are not racing pigeons, he said.

The flightless pigeon breed is known as parlor rollers. They have been genetically bred not to fly, and when they are nervous or excited, they roll, Decarlo said. There is a competition among parlor rollers to see whose bird can roll the furthest, but it’s not cruel because this is the natural way these birds behave, according to several pigeon experts interviewed Wednesday by the Journal & Courier.

Everyone interviewed Wednesday was incensed by the way these birds were discarded.

Hoover said no one seems interested in investigating it as a criminal case.

“From what I’m told, they’re not pets; they’re not farm animals, so nobody does anything,” she said.

National Pigeon Association Secretary/Treasurer Tim Heidrich of Georgia doesn’t see why it couldn’t be prosecuted.

“To me, it’s like animal cruelty,” Heidrich said. “There are ways to get rid of them without being cruel about it.”

“There are quite a few small shows,” he said. “You can go to these things and sell them — give them away to the kids.”

DeCarlo suggested giving unwanted pigeons to 4Hers so they can learn the hobby and show them.

Finding so many birds thrown away begs the question of whether other birds met with a similar fate only went undiscovered at other locations.

“We don’t know if this is the first time,” Hoover said. “Is it happening at other rest parks? We don’t know.

“I just wish he’d stop. These birds don’t deserve to be thrown out.”

Mass. aims to unite taxpayers through hatred of pigeon poop

BOSTON — Along with all the usual declarations and deductions, Massachusetts residents have been asked to keep something else in mind this tax season: pigeon droppings.

In an unusual and at times stomach-turning appeal, the state agency MassWildlife proposed that one way to fight back against the sticky messes befouling cars and damaging bridges is for taxpayers to check a box on their tax forms to support the state’s endangered species program.

How so? Peregrine falcons are among the program’s beneficiaries, and they prey on pigeons.

“Hate pigeon poop? Save peregrine falcons,” begins the message on the agency’s website and in a recent newsletter. It goes on to picture a typical motorist driving home from work over one of the state’s major bridges.

“You’re thinking about dinner as you wait in traffic when — PLOP! — something white and black falls onto your windshield,” the post continues.

Next comes a scientific breakdown of the bird droppings that includes an explanation — for inquiring minds that need to know — of the precise difference between the dark and white portions.

Damage: And then, lest the reader believe it’s all no more than a yucky nuisance, this warning: “This paste-like substance is so acidic and corrosive, that it can damage your car’s paint job. And you guessed it, groups of birds all going to the bathroom in the same place can make man-made structures like bridges deteriorate faster.”

Enter the peregrine falcon, a magnificent predator that can attain speeds of 240 mph in high-elevation dives, no match for the slower and less agile pigeon, which just so happens to be one of the peregrine’s favorite feasts.

Peregrine falcons disappeared from Massachusetts in the mid-1950s and soon after in the entire eastern U.S., their demise largely blamed on the pesticide DDT, according to the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.

After the chemical was banned, efforts picked up to reintroduce the raptor, sometimes confused with more common varieties of hawk.

Pigeon-hunting perches: To the surprise of some ornithologists, many of the newcomers eschewed their former rural habitats and became city dwellers. Instead of on cliffs, they began nesting on tall building ledges and bridges in urban areas where food sources — pigeons, especially — were more plentiful.

To help the falcons along, state officials and volunteers placed nesting boxes in strategic locations such as the Custom House Tower in Boston, the 28-story W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the heavily traveled Tobin Bridge spanning the Mystic River.

“Falcon cams” were even installed to offer a continuous livestream of peregrine comings and goings.

The restoration effort is partially funded by voluntary donations from taxpayers, who can choose to contribute to “endangered wildlife conservation” on their state returns. The money supports more than 400 threatened or endangered plants and animals, from bog turtles to timber rattlesnakes, but the peregrine falcon is easily among the most “charismatic,” said David Paulson, senior endangered species biologist for MassWildlife.

Donations: Contributions to the fund have been increasing but remain well below levels needed, according to state officials and wildlife experts. About 23,000 taxpayers gave $312,000 through the tax check-off in 2017, the last full year for which figures were available, compared with the $178,000 provided by approximately 18,000 taxpayers in 2013.

It’s not just bird lovers and conservationists embracing the slow but steady revival of the peregrine falcons.

State transportation engineers have noticed a reduction in the pigeon population on bridges with nesting falcons, officials said. Fewer pigeons means less waste building up on bridge surfaces, rusting the steel and increasing the costs for maintenance and bridge replacement.

“It’s almost like a symbiotic relationship,” Paulson said. “The structure provides the habitat, and the falcons kind of provide the pest management, for lack of a better term.”

Officials hope drivers when completing their tax forms will see the peregrine as a feathered friend that can make an unwanted splattering a bit less likely.

The falcons “are never going to eliminate (pigeons), but they can help to manage them,” Paulson said.

Man Shells Out $1.4 Million for a Pigeon

Don’t bet against the high-flying lifestyle of rare bird and sports.

A buyer has bid more than $1.4 million for a champion Belgian racing pigeon in a sale, according to the auction house Pipa, which oversaw the online auction for the rare bird.

This regal, emerald green-feathered bird is no regular pigeon you would frequent on the street — as you probably imagined.

In fact, lest you underestimate the athleticism of the mighty bird named “Armando,” look no further than this endorsement.

Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the founder and chief executive of Pipa, told the Press Association: “This pigeon has a race record that has never been matched by any other pigeon.”

“In football terms you have Messi and Ronaldo – it’s that level.”

The praise for “Armando” continued from there.

PIPA

“This is a crowning glory of all those years in the pigeon sport. The icing on the cake,” Joël Verschoot said of the unique bird he put up for auction, according to the Guardian.

Indeed, Armando is apparently a champ who really goes the distance.

As to why a bird fetched such a high price, it comes down to Armando’s particular knack for the long-distance competition in China, where bird racing is a popular draw.

Bird owners can win plenty of their money back by betting on the correct winged competitor, with prizes in the tens of thousands of dollars.

That being said, your typical racer bird fetches $2,838, according to the BBC.

“This type of champion is rarely offered for sale,” according to the auction site. The high price leapt from $600,000 to $1.4 million in the final moments of bidding, according to the auction site, which features a close-up snapshot of the bird’s eye for reasons unknown.

Go Armando.

A City in Spain Plans to Exile 5,000 Pigeons. Will They Stay Away?

MADRID — The Spanish city of Cádiz will undertake what some may see as a Sisyphean task: relocating 5,000 pigeons hundreds of miles away after a complaint that the birds are driving away tourists from the terraces of cafes in the most visited part of the southern port city.

Carrier pigeons probably date back to ancient Persia. But under a plan announced last month by Cádiz officials, the pigeons themselves will be carried: They will be captured and transported next year to a thinly populated countryside location in eastern Spain. There, they will find a new home in a dovecote near the town of Ribarroja del Turia.

The exile solution to pigeon overcrowding is being presented as a more animal-friendly approach than that taken in other places, where pigeons are treated like flying rats to be culled or fed contraceptive pills that may also be consumed by other species.

The city will use “the most respectful and sustainable method” to keep its pigeon population under control, Álvaro de la Fuente, the city official in charge of environmental policy, said in a statement.

The city came up with the plan after Horeca, a regional federation of hoteliers, complained two years ago that the pigeons were menacing tourists, particularly in the city’s emblematic cathedral square.

“When the pigeon gets hungry, it can get very forceful and often doesn’t even wait for the tourists to leave their table to go for their food,” said Antonio De María Ceballos, a restaurant owner and the president of Horeca.

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oreca also argued that pigeon excrement presents a health risk for waiters and other employees who have to clean pigeon-occupied dining and drinking areas.

The risk, Mr. De María Ceballos said, was confirmed last year by a court ruling in Catalonia that upheld the disability claim of a Barcelona tourism official who said that she contracted pulmonary fibrosis from exposure to floating particles of bird excrement while working in pigeon-filled city squares.

“Nobody here has anything against pigeons or other animals, but something must be done when they proliferate to the point of presenting a health risk,” said Mr. De María Ceballos.

The city hopes to carry out the relocation next year. The 5,000 or so pigeons will have to be trapped and undergo health checks before they are transported and released in eastern Spain, about 375 miles from Cádiz. The hope is that the highly adaptable rock pigeons will be happy to resettle there rather than be tempted to make the return flight.

Mr. de la Fuente, the city official, is also calling on residents to play their part and stop overfeeding pigeons.

He argued that fighting pigeon overpopulation can also helped avoid the spread of “other plagues like rodents.”

City Hall will distribute 3,000 leaflets about how to deal with pigeons, hoping to educate rather than fine its residents for overindulging the birds.

In London, under legislation adopted a decade ago, people risk a fine of as much as 500 pounds ($636) for feeding pigeons around Trafalgar Square.

Council unveils secret weapon against pigeon poo…a killer hawk!

PESKY pigeons are being given a run for their money after council bosses brought in a hawk to scare them away – and stop them dumping their unpleasant payloads on people’s heads.

The harris hawk and its handler have been seen several times on the roof of the county council’s social services offices in Clacton.

The airborne attacker sends seagulls and pigeons screeching into the air as the hawk is released from the roof of the Magnet House building in Jackson Road.

An Essex Council spokesman said: “Due to the continued roosting of pigeons and seagulls on top of Magnet House, our partners Mitie are currently trialling the use of a hawk as a deterrent, to prevent the build-up of bird droppings at the building’s entrances.

“This method is highly effective and environmentally friendly, as the hawk’s presence should quickly make an area undesirable for pest species, and in doing so help to keep Magnet House clean and safe in future.”

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London’s Pigeon Problem has a Simple Solution: a Hawk

Fifteen years ago, the center of London was densely populated — not just with people, but also with birds. Particularly pigeons.

Huge flocks of them would fill the capital’s parks and squares. But something has changed. The pigeons are gone. One reason for the pigeon decline can be seen in Trafalgar Square at 7 a.m. every weekday.

Not far from Big Ben, the square is the very center of the city. Even early in the day it bustles with commuters, tourists and school parties. But among all that activity there is a hunter on the loose. A silent killer. One who watches over every movement — from the National Gallery on the north side to Charing Cross Station on the south. Up close to him, you notice powerful shoulders, a penetrating gaze — and also a tendency to twist his head around to the back looking for prey.

That hunter’s name is Lemmy, and he is a Harris’s hawk.

Lemmy is employed by the Greater London Authority to ensure that places like Trafalgar Square remain free of pigeons, and therefore free of their waste. He works in a team: his handler, Paul Picknell, is employed by Hawkforce, one of London’s leading avian security firms.

Speaking to Picknell, there is no mistaking his love for his work buddy. “He’s a work colleague, he’s a friend. [But he is] essentially a wild animal. Never tame. In amongst all these people — he’ll totally ignore everybody apart from me,” he says. “It’s almost a telepathetic communication.”

Until the early 2000s, pigeons ruled Trafalgar Square and other open spaces in the center of London. You could buy food to feed them. Even Mary Poppins had a song advising Londoners to feed the birds.

Things changed in 2003, when the mayor of London declared war on the birds. So many pigeons produced a lot of … waste. And that’s not hygienic.

The pigeon feed stall was closed. If Mary Poppins tried to feed the birds now, she would be hit with a fine. But a humane and natural way to move the pigeons on was needed. And that’s where Picknell and Lemmy come in.

As Picknell is talking, Lemmy suddenly gags and vomits up a small oily lump of yellowish paste onto the sidewalk. Picknell is relieved. “Oh. That’s what we’re waiting for,” he says. “That’s the cast. It’s basically beaks, the feathers, the claws of the food he had yesterday that he can’t digest.”

He picks it up and rubs it carefully between his fingers for a diagnosis. It crumbles under his thumbnail. “That one’s quite normal looking. Nothing wrong with this bird. He’s ready to go now.”

Although Harris’s hawks do hunt birds like pigeons, the idea is not for Lemmy to kill while on duty. He is fed exclusively from a small plastic box of raw chicken scraps. Picknell takes a large handful and fills his pocket with these snacks at the start of every shift.

Instead, the idea is to use Lemmy’s presence to deter and intimidate pigeons. “It’s a visual thing. It’s a presence,” says Picknell. “The pigeons are aware there’s a bird of prey — there’s predator around, therefore they stay away.”

There’s an air of “The Sopranos” when Picknell describes the effect Lemmy’s presence has on pigeons. “I suppose he does intimidate them,” he says. “The big kid’s around. Keep yourself to yourself. Stay out the way.”

Unlike other forms of pest control, such as poisoning or shooting, the use of hawks is environmentally friendly and ultimately humane. It is also popular: Picknell and Limmy are constantly pestered for selfies. Some hawks like the attention more than others, Picknell says. Lemmy is not too keen on having his feathers ruffled.

There was some backlash at first — a renegade pro-pigeon activist group is still rumored to carry out vigilante bread distributions somewhere nearby — but the square today is much cleaner. And almost completely free of pigeons.

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Spring in the air, China’s pigeon racers give birds their meds

BEIJING (Reuters) – Guarding against avian flu, which has forced a mass cull of birds in China, pigeon fancier Wang Jincang paid out nearly $400 to get his 200 racing pigeons vaccinated and fortified for the onset of the spring racing season.

“I normally choose imported medicines, which are several times more expensive than some local brands,” Wang told Reuters as he lined up to enter birds for contests that begin this month.

The cost of vaccination is small change compared with how much pigeon enthusiasts can pay to buy prized breeds.

An egg can cost a few hundred dollars, while the price for a full-grown bird with a coveted bloodline can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2013, a Chinese businessman paid 310,000 euros (nearly $334,000) for a Belgian-bred racing pigeon, whereas local birds can be bought for less than $100.

Wang doesn’t want to say how much he has invested in his birds, though he spends almost $1,500 a month looking after their health, and describes his pastime as wagering time and money.

“Pigeon racing is essentially gambling. We are betting our time and fortune on the birds, similar to horse-betting,” Wang said.

Any form of gambling is banned in China, but pigeon races, which are flown over hundreds of kilometers, fall under the gray category of social sports.

China hosts more than 100,000 pigeon races annually, some of them organized by corporate-backed professional pigeon clubs like Huashunde, supported by Beijing Huashunde Power Engineering Ltd, and Hongjin Pigeon Club, backed by PetroChina Huabei Oil Field Co.

Prize money has been rising. A club in Beijing is set to award 70 million yuan (over $10 million) in total prize money at its autumn championship.

Ge, a 39-year-old pigeon owner in Fujian, has 80 pigeons. So far, they have helped him win 150,000 yuan (nearly $22,000).

“We aim for good scores and big rewards at contests,” said Ge. “Otherwise, why raise pigeons?”

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Egypt’s pigeons soar above wooden towers, away from the dinner plate

Pigeons are a delicacy in Egypt, traditionally served roasted and stuffed with fragrant rice. But for Cairo’s pigeon fanciers, their prized birds are nobody’s next meal.

Pigeon lofts, towering structures made of wood, balance atop hundreds of buildings in poorer neighbourhoods across the city. They house thousands of highly trained birds that would have otherwise found a home at a butcher’s.

Different breeds, whose speed, colouring and markings vary, can cost thousands of pounds per bird, and in Cairo the market for them is highly competitive.

“We enjoy it, we can stay up there from 7 in the morning until midnight, just doing what we love,” Sayed Mohamed, a pigeon fancier, told Reuters.

Mohamed’s loft is four stories high and overlooks a 15th-century complex built by Mameluk Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the afternoon, he releases his pigeons – first his most prized birds, later the entire flock.

The birds understand a complex series of whistles and gestures that signal for them to fly higher or to come home. They fly far and wide, usually making their way back to the loft by nightfall. They often return with other pigeons.

“You can think of it like a shared language. They’re used to certain patterns, so if they land at another loft and notice something unfamiliar, they know it’s not home,” Mohamed said.

In the evening, Mohamed and other fanciers gather around local coffee shops to brag about stealing one other’s birds, each taking pride in the day’s catch.

Mohamed first picked up the hobby in his childhood, going with his uncle to the family pigeon loft and feeding the birds.

“I started doing this out of love … but I later learned that you also have to use it to make profit, you can’t just keep buying more pigeons,” Mohamed told Reuters.

Fanciers carefully breed their birds and often sell young pigeons to traders on a lucrative market.

“When [my brother and I] moved out, we got jobs and we bought houses and the first thing we did, even before getting married, was that we built our loft,” he said. “It makes us feel alive.”

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City orders dozens of pigeons to be removed from Regina home

The number of birds in one man’s backyard in North Central has gotten so large, the City of Regina is stepping in and asking him to get rid of the animals.

And the move is ruffling Gordon Loucks’ feathers.

Dozens of pigeons can be seen perched or flying around his home, which he calls the “Club Med” for birds. For years, Loucks said he’s been racing and training mainly doves and pigeons — or what he calls rock doves. He gives them food, water and shelter. Because of this, he said other feral birds have migrated to his property.

While he said he’s received permits from the city before, he doesn’t have one for this year. Loucks said he was denied, told he has too many birds which violates a bylaw that states “all yards, buildings, and structures shall be kept free of infestations of vermin, rodents, pigeons and insects.”

He said you are allowed to have 90 birds, but the city determined he was over that number, and so did he, admitting he was over too.

“They’re not my birds,” he insisted on the feral pigeons attracted to his house. “I can’t control these birds from coming into my yard.”

Loucks claimed some of his neighbours have complained. But he backs the birds up, and said those who call them flying rats are just uneducated. He believes there is no difference between a dove and a pigeon, saying they’re the same bird, just a different colour.

He wanted to turn a hobby into a full time business, claiming the city had actually previously paid him thousands of dollars to release doves at various municipal functions over the years.

Now, the city giving him 30 days to remove the birds. It’s a ruling he recently went to city hall to appeal, but the decision was ultimately upheld.

“Everybody’s dream is to be financially independent. Well, they screwed my dream,” he said.

He believes the bylaw needs an update to reflect someone in his unique circumstance.

“There’s nothing in the bylaw for people who are using it for livelihood; for financial reasons.”

Loucks said he has until April 1 to remove all birds, both his own and the feral ones. He’ll comply, but only to a certain point he suggests.

“I will remove the wild ones, get in accordance with the compliance with the city for the number of birds,” he said, adding at that point the city can then come back and count the remaining birds.