Baby Pigeons.....?

Question

Has anyone ever personally seen a baby pigeon? And not someone who raises them, I mean like outside in "the wild". I live in Brooklyn, and all I ever see are those little brown birds (not sure what they're called) and fully grown pigeons. I know that they nest on tall buildings, but come on now.....how can I never have seen at least one baby pigeon in nearly 30 years of living in New York, the pigeon capitol of the world??

And no, the little birds aren't doves, they are too small, plus I know what a dove looks like--these are small and cute, like little chickadees or something.

Answer 1

Why you never see Baby Pigeons:

Maybe the old ones never die. My Portland flock could be the self-same bunch of birds that filched clams from the Abenaki Indians and pooped upon approaching Viking boats. In addition to adapting flawlessly to the total nature-fake of a human habitat, maybe pigeons have also adapted perfectly to life: It doesn't make them die.

But because that's improbable, and because I was terribly curious about what kind of guy intentionally associates with pigeons, I called John Heppner, president of the National Pigeon Association.

"Absolutely," he said in a sobering tone of voice when I asked if there is such a thing as a baby pigeon. "I've been raising 'em for fifty years." What he went on to tell me gave me a new respect for the grubby, shining, strutting, victorious pigeon.


First of all, unlike dippy little English sparrows or robins, pigeons hide their nests.
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Heppner said that back when they emerged in Asia (evidently, they were nature-living animals, once), pigeons were cliff-dwellers. So now they balance their messy nests of sticks inside the guts of bridges, or atop tall buildings, or on top of your air conditioner.
Secondly, pigeons are parents non pareil. They lay only two eggs at a time, and spoil those babies shamefully. "The parents will feed the babies until they're totally feathered out," Heppner reported proudly. "By the time they leave the nest, they'll be about the same size as the adults. You know when people eat squab, that's when they take 'em -- when they're nice and plump." Squab, for the culinarily challenged, being baby pigeon.


And the doting parents don't feed these butter-balls your typical bird baby-food.
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These birdlets get something called "pigeon milk," and the faint-of-stomach may not wish to explore this paragraph further. Both parents manufacture in their crop, or throat, a rich, fatty "milk" that looks, Heppner says, much like yellow cottage cheese. They ralph this delicacy up and expel it into the throats of their darlings. "You can see this white stuff glowing in the crops of the squabs," Heppner says. "They're just full of it."
After eight or 10 days of this ambrosial diet, the parents begin mixing in solid food and water. "They'll eat heavily, then drink a lot of water to easily chuck up the grain," Heppner enthuses, and offering between these fascinating facts to send me photographs of fancy pigeons. "And did you know pigeons drink like horses? Hens will lift their heads up to swallow. But pigeons put their head down and just take a long draught."

And do the parents flinch at all this work, this cheese-making, this grain-chucking, this drinking-like-a-horse? Of course not. "If all's going along well with the first nest, they'll build another, right near by, and lay the next batch," Heppner says. "They'll take turns sitting on the next set, while the other feeds up the squabs." And they'll do that four to six times a season. So, not only are there baby pigeons, there are baby-pigeon assembly lines.

And when the fledglings do finally leave the nest, Heppner says, their plumage and size are so similar to those of the flock they hang around with that only the practiced pigeonophile would be able to pick out the babies.


Care to practice finding the youngsters? Look for them in the spring and summer.
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They may have stray strands of down poking through their feathers.

They may retain a trace of the "lip" around their beak that gives the parents a wider ralphing target.

Their heads may be narrower.

They may be shy. "They're more timid," Heppner explains. "They won't be professional in going after the best food."


http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970905/skinnyon.html

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By Little Brown Birds, do you mean Doves?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove

Some info and photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon

About Pigeons:
http://ehrweb.aaas.org/ehr/parents/Pigeons!.html

Answer 2

I work in a building that has a few pigeon nest. i would see them once a week. by the time they left the nest you would not notice the difference between an adult or a young pigeon. The only difference is the beak. the young pigeons have a more tubular beak with a little bulgetowrads the face opposed to the cove shaped beaks of adult pigeons.

Answer 3

They are kept very well hidden by the parents and spoiled therefore never leave the nest until they are almost adult.
The only time you may see them is when people eat Squab. This is when the pigeon is not quite an adult but nice and plump.

Answer 4

Pigeons mature very fast, and the only time you'll see a "baby" is if it fals from the nest. You can tell the diff b/w an adult and a juvenile very easily--look at the cere (nostrils) and check whether they're white or dark colored. White ceres are on adults, and dark ceres are on juvies--under 3 months old.

Answer 5

Pigeons make "crop milk" that allows their squabs to mature even faster than other birds. And birds mature much faster than the other classes of vertebrates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove

Answer 6

you're really sweet, you know that? :)

i live in la and hadn't noticed that i had never seen a baby pigeon either

i have however seen baby seaguls and baby crows each of which have brought tears to my eyes they are just toooo incredibly cute

i hope to one day be blessed to see a baby pigeon