The pigeon (word derived from French) and Dove (derived from german) are in the same family and have two major branches
the fruit eaters (they can hang on trees pretty good) and the seed eating ground dwelling group. Their beaks are not as specialized as ducks but they do have special groups that can be honey eating or insect pecking that does not require much elaboration.
Pigeons and doves feed and care for their young in a special way: they regurgitate up the food with a liquid that has milky qualities. The parent birds take care of their young but they do accidentally raise babies that are not their own (cow birds fool/trick other birds to raise their young) The pigeons are sort of exploited because they do come home (to raise their young and to nest) and their homing instincts have benefitted mankind.
The homing pigeon
Besides the horse, mankind has used the pigeon for warfare. Their homing instinct can be used to send messages from a spy in enemy territory to his home base. In World war I and II some pigeons have received medals for their services.
I have raised pigeons and one day some of the birds were stolen. Several days later one pigeon returned to the nest. I suppose people wished that more of their possessions magically returned to them. Noah was hoping that his dove would return. His dove returned with an olive branch and the second time the bird was released, I believe the dove did not return.
One fairy tale
The ancients used to believe that the gall was the part of the body that made people mean. Hence the term: Of all the gall.... To further prove their point that the gall is partially responsible for meanness, they claimed that the pigeon who is not mean, did not have a gall. Well that is a fair tale, the pigeon has a gall....
But being a bird the pigeon also has a meaty gizzard. The pigeon has to eat literally rocks and sand to put into the gizzard. The gizzard uses the sand and rocks to grind up the hard seeds that they swallow. The fruit eating pigeons don't need a large stomach but the seed eating pigeons do need a larger stomach/gut.
The meat of the story about pigeons
Flying birds have large breast muscles. The pigeons excel at flying and were able to fly to most parts of the earth. The Dodo bird is part of the pigeon family that decided he did not need to fly as much. That sort of made that bird prone to extinction because they couldn't fly away from man.
However pigeons do manage to live in cities. That has made them a target because they pollute statues and other public areas. In areas where there are eagles and hawks the pigeon population is kept in check. Other cities lack eagles and hawks so they have to resort to putting birth control in the pigeon's diet.
What is the difference between pigeons and doves? Usually weddings and ceremonies use White doves (which are homing birds so when released they are not going to become homeless but return to the breeder). Some people claim doves are smaller than pigeons but both young are called squabs.
Hence when you order squab, it could be a young pigeon or young dove. In California they do have dove season near the Salton Sea. Other wise it is rare to see dove on a restaurant menu. I have eaten pigeon/squab before and it tastes OK. Birds like duck are a bit oily but pigeon is not oily or fatty. I would suppose pigeon eggs are more healthy for you but still the egg is not that big. If you raise pigeons you would know that plucking off the feathers is no fun. In Chinatown you can order fresh pigeon and have them take the feathers off. Unfortunately you do not know where they obtained the pigeons. Some of the pigeons used to be plucked from bridges and other places where the common pigeon hangs out.
Comments (5)
Pretty interesting story of pigeon and peace.
Just wanna share: Hornbill bird is the symbol of my hometown - Sarawak. Probably it's because there's a lot of Hornbill birds in the Island of Borneo.
we have a lot of doves here in our town
very interesting... always thought that pigeons and doves are related... sometimes pigeons can be pests because they grow in number so easily eating the seeds the farmers sow... we have lots of 'em here in my hometown I don't know why but somehow people are amazed to see pigeons, despite it being not so colorful, and they don't catch them but the colorful ones they catch and put in cages. pigeons and doves are luckier than most birds.
That was interesting. Sometimes, when our finances are really low, I have wondered if I could catch any pigeons for food. They really don't look like that have much meat on them for all the work it would be, though!
Maybe a nice soup?
I loved reading this. My wife is always amused at the males who are on the ground around us when we are dropping crumbs. She wonders if they ever eat. lol
I saw old war movies that hat homing pigeons. It showed the enemy trying to shoot them out of the sky. I guess it happened.
frank