Wild About: Pigeons

Wild About is a celebration of the flora and fauna commonly found in our cities. Instead of fact sheets, this space will showcase books, art, music, societies, and whimsical objects about urban-adaptable plants and animals.  If you would like to see your favorite urban-oriented plant or animal featured, please email us at info(at)localecology.org.

It is fair to write that the pigeon, Columba livia, is the iconic urban bird. We have certainly flocked to this bird in a post about Project Pigeon Watch, fruit-eating pigeons, and a review of The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack.  Also, view a short video of pigeons drinking water.

We are not the only ones wild about this species.  Animal New York posts a pigeon photo daily.  Singer Rachel Trachtenburg of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players performs the Pigeon Song which I found via the National Pigeon Day blog.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! cover image via Wikipedia (source)

Mo Willems made pigeons child friendly with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (as well as Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!).

In 2011, the Victoria and and Albert Museum in London held a clay pigeon making workshop to celebrate the "iconic residents" of Trafalgar Square.  (These clay pigeons were not meant for target practice.)

On a sad note, the American Museum of Natural History has an exhibit case devoted to the extinct passenger pigeon in the Hall of New York City Birds. Learn about the passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, in the Encyclopedia Smithsonian.

Previously in this series Wild About: Ginkgo.

Wild About was inspired by the Animal Love series at Design*Sponge.