BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
A SMIDGEN ABOUT PIGEONS
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
One of the great things about being a birdwatcher is it's so easy to pursue your hobby. There's almost always a bird nearby to watch. Compare this to being a snake or mammal watcher (excluding humans) - you could spend days without having anything to watch.

Rock Pigeon

Birds are also quite content to let you watch them, wonder about them, marvel at them, even with binoculars. People are not so accommodating. Imagine sitting on the bench on Main Street ogling passers-by with field glasses!

So, there I was waiting in my car at Steamboat Wharf, and I noticed pigeons on the tarmac beside me. Most of you are aware there is a flock of 60 or 80 of these birds that make their home in the wharf area. They were waddling around, heads bobbing, as pigeons do. With a bit of horror I noticed them drinking from the wet spots on the pavement.

This illustrated several pigeon features. First, they are not particular from whence they drink, and second, they can drink by suction. You've probably watched birds drinking from your birdbath. They bend down to capture some water in their bills, then throw their heads back to swallow. Doves and pigeons don't have to do this. So these pigeons were placing their heads sideways over these pools of water, motor oil, and God knows what other noxious materials, and sucking the liquid directly into their throats. Amazing - and they are thriving on this!

The official name for these 'sky rats' as some call them, is the Rock Pigeon. It had been Rock Dove up until a few years ago, but scientists correctly observed that doves have long pointed tails, like our Mourning Doves, whereas pigeons have rounded tails. The Latin name is Columba livia, the blue pigeon. The species originated in the Middle East where it nests on cliffs overlooking the sea. They have a lot of bluish feathering that you can see given good light, else they appear quite grey.

This species gets along quite well with humans, and now almost every city in the world has huge populations of them, nesting on the ledges of buildings that to doves seem a lot like cliffs. Originally they nested once a year, laid their two eggs and things were in balance. Turns out that their nesting cycle is triggered by food supply. Man came along and provided plenty of food for them and now it is not uncommon for them to nest six times a year. There are lots of Rock Pigeons.

They are medium-sized, chunky birds, larger than a jay, smaller than a crow. You see many that are white, or with white patches. This is because pigeon lovers selectively breed them for all kinds of fancy appearances. Also, it is a favorite thing to release a flock of white doves for the frou-frou Nantucket weddings on the beach. The supplier recovers most of them, but birds have wings and they do fly. All Rock Pigeons show at least some white on their rumps, just above the tail, and this is a reliable field mark for them.

Incredibly they were first brought to this continent and released in 1606, up in Port Royal, Acadia, now Nova Scotia. This area was settled before Jamestown and Plymouth, and they brought pigeons with them no less. Most probably they were brought along as a food source. Squab is still found on the menus of trendy restaurants. You can find five varieties at Chau Chow City Restaurant in Boston.

It's worthwhile to study these birds when you see them. They are excellent fliers, generally staying in flocks, and their airborne maneuvers can be entertaining. When they glide, they often hold their wings upward in a vee to let the wind slip past. You should get very familiar with these pigeons so a similar but different bird will stand out. The ones I'm thinking of are accipters, both Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks. They can appear the same size as a pigeon, and it's quite startling to see one dart into a flock of pigeons and emerge carrying one away.

When Griscom and Folger collected data for their 1948, "Birds of Nantucket," it was estimated there were a dozen pairs on the island. They went unrecorded on our Christmas Bird Counts until 1974. In 2006 we found 152 and the high count was 353 in 1999.

On Nantucket, they are normally our only pigeon, but in 1996 Francis Pease had a pigeon show up at his feeder that looked odd and it turned out to be our only record for a Band-tailed Pigeon, a Rocky Mountain

species. You have to watch your pigeons! I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.