wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] CH August 18, 2008 - 12:12PM

  If Antonin Dvorak liked our NY pigeons, who am I to argue? Pigeons do provide employment security for window washers and statue cleaners. And they clean more crumbs off the Staten Island Ferry than the staff does. Perhaps some humans feel intimidated by animals who occasionally seem to outsmart us? Personally, I'll take a pigeon over a rat any day.

  
  
• [2] Sarah from Brooklyn August 18, 2008 - 12:52PM

  Pigeons are fascinating to watch when you pay attention to them --- their markings, mating rituals, health, missing limbs. I love NYC pigeons!

  
  
• [3] monkeybunny24 from s.i.,NY August 18, 2008 - 12:55PM

  Pigeons get too much bad press. They are city wildlife. It better to see free birds as opposed to those kept in cages. Leave the pigeons alone, they're not like you.

  
  
• [4] MG from Park Slope August 18, 2008 - 01:09PM

  If you're one of these folks who throws trash and garbage on the ground, then you cannot complain about pigeons. They really are doing us a service by eating your trash.

  
  
• [5] a woman from manhattan August 18, 2008 - 01:13PM

  This is what I think of pigeons! They're mostly mangey, scrofulous, yucky things:

  http://gothamist.com/2008/07/19/lunch_hour_birds.php

  
  
• [6] Robert from Manhattan August 18, 2008 - 01:16PM

  Where are the baby Pigeons? You never see them on the street.

  
  
• [7] monkeybunny24 from s.i.,NY August 18, 2008 - 01:42PM

  To #5...Gee, you're describing a lot of New Yorkers too!

  
  
• [8] Donald Jenner from New York August 22, 2008 - 12:03PM

  Ugh! "Science writer" -- j-school grad? -- does instant-book on hot topic. Probably GenX, thinks 30 is the new 20. Just accurate enough to get by an editor, far enough off to be dangerous to pigeons; perfect material for the B-school and new-minted lawyer to natter about over cocktails (more likely bad wine with dried-out cheese on soggy crax). Wonder what she read as a crib source?

  
  
• [9] Donald Jenner from New York August 22, 2008 - 12:12PM

  Then you are seeing pigeons who are having a very hard time -- probably having to root in garbage to find a bit to eat. The larger body of evidence -- which would appear to be outside the limited extent of your experience -- is that pigeons are fond of bathing, spend hours preening (adjusting and cleaning their feathers), take every possible step to avoid fouling their nests, smell good and -- well, just aren't as yucky as many New Yorkers (to judge from rides on the subway). Certainly not scrofulous, and the lice they get are not the lice causing mange, nor are people able to support feather-lice.

  
  
• [10] Donald Jenner from New York August 22, 2008 - 12:20PM

  Baby pigeons stay in the nest for about six weeks. A pigeon egg is around an inch long, and the new hatchling (commonly two, hatched a day or so apart) is very small and lightly down-coated. Mommy & Daddy birds take turns keeping their babies warm and feed. Ideally, the infants/juveniles hang around (hiding as needed) until maybe eight weeks old, at which point they are pretty well able to fly and eat on their own. One does see young pigeons, less than half adult-normal weight with the cere (the fleshy bit on the top of the beak) still not receded full and often a dull pink rather than white), out on the street. Sometimes out of the nest too early to readily survive; they are amazing as they get right into the mix with older birds and work very hard. Some of them make it to adulthood -- that's hardiness in the (pigeon) flesh. Amazing critters.

  
  
• [11] johanna clearfield from brooklyn, New York August 23, 2008 - 06:43PM

  no, pigeons are not "rats with wings." According to the developers in the very last and precious wilds of PA and NJ, fawns are "rats with hooves." Life is precious, regardless of whatever epithet you use. Pigeons are doves. Humans only like the "white" doves and not the "coloreds." We live in a world where we demand that other sentient creatures -- either be of some service to humans (pets or food or entertainment) or they are "pests."

  As a NY State licensed wildlife rehabilitator, I can assure everyone that pigeons do not spread diseases -- they have been domestic longer than "man's best friend" and so humans are completely immune to any of their commonly held diseases.

  Most pigeons in the cities fall ill to man-made dangers and toxins such as drinking anti freeze out of desperation for water (there are little if any clean bird baths anywhere in the city) and/or being sliced into bits by shattered glass, run over by cars or trucks, chased by children, feet tangled in fishing wire left behind on any of our many water fronts, and the list goes on.

  The most common cause of death in NYC pigeons is starvation.

  
  
• [12] nina August 25, 2008 - 01:32PM

  I have to say I did not like the tone of this interview either. I too object to the idea that animals are only worthy of respect in accordance with their value to human beings (as food animals or whatever). I have fostered feral pigeons and experienced first-hand how smart, playful, and affectionate they can be.... they are valuable creatures in their own right.

  
  
• [13] RR from NA August 27, 2008 - 01:45PM

  Pigeons & English sparrows are not native to North America. They displace native song birds and other native bird species as they migrate across NYC. They are carriers of many disease and most likely

  a reservoir host for the West Nile like virus.We should do all that we can to reduce the Pigeons & English sparrows populations in NYC and the suburbs.

  
  
• [14] Hank Goldman from New York NY September 02, 2008 - 09:26AM

  What happens to the bodies of ALL the urban wildlife? Pigeons, mice and rats, Squirrels and stray cats, dogs, etc ?

  After over 200 years in cities, like New York------ WHERE are their Hundreds of Thousands + of little urban wildlife carcasses?

  They can't ALL be buried in nests or trees by relatives? They surely don't ALL get eaten by wolves, or owls or buzzards (few of which are visibly active in a major CITY).

  I know that biological deterioration and decay happens, but it does NOT happen 'overnight', so one would think that you would see urban wildlife in various stages of decay. ----But; You Don't!!

  No one I ask knows for sure? Do you? THANKS,