Lest you have the notion that birds are “mentally retarded”, consider the activity of this smarty-pants captured on Quora.com.
Whether the pigeon came to the nursing home to visit a lonely patient, or he’s hopefully checking out a new supermarket, I was impressed. Until I stumbled on this interesting photo, I usually relied on my built-in superiority complex toward the animal world – especially the part of it occupied by pigeons.
I always figured pigeons were – and I say this with all due respect – nincompoops, with emphasis on the poop. Dimwits. Airheads. Dumber than a mud fence. Like me, they squawk a lot, they’re plump, and they walk funny, so you’d think I’d be more tolerant, – and from now on, I will be. I have had an epiphany.
With a little help from my new friend, ChatGPT, I have revised my opinion of all those two-legged crumb-hustlers. When I asked ChatGPT about their intelligence, this is what I learned:
“Pigeons are an interesting case, as they have been shown to possess certain cognitive abilities that are not typically associated with birds. For example, research has found that pigeons are able to recognize themselves in a mirror, which is a cognitive skill that was previously thought to be unique to primates.
Pigeons have also been trained to perform a wide range of tasks, such as navigating using visual cues and identifying different objects and images. They are also known for their remarkable homing abilities, which allow them to find their way home from long distances using various cues such as the sun, stars, and Earth’s magnetic field.
While pigeons may not be as well-known for their intelligence as other birds such as parrots or crows, they have certainly displayed a range of cognitive abilities that suggest they are more intelligent than many people might think.”
So there you have it. Apparently, among their other attributes, pigeons have been operating with a built-in GPS for a million or so years before we ever heard of such a tool. As a person who gets lost between the front porch and the garage, I am impressed! Of course, another of their talents is knowing how to fly, a skill which I have personally failed to achieve, even after faithfully giving my arms plenty of flapping practice. And I apologize for having misjudged their intelligence quotient which may be an improvement over my own.
But as far as their cognitive ability is concerned, I may have a problem. My favorite smart birds, the crows, can not only recognize specific humans, they teach their baby crows to exactly remember those people, and whether they should be appreciated or feared.
If pigeons like our nursing home visitor can recognize themselves in a mirror – then maybe, like their crow relatives, they can recognize me and all the demeaning insults I’ve written about them, and the next time one of them poops on my head, I’ll have to wonder whether it was an accident. Or not. And it would serve me right if not a single one of these gentle creatures will ever come visit me in my future nursing home.
The moral of this story – you knew there had to be one – is that intolerance for all of God’s creatures, human and otherwise, is for birdbrains. The next time, you’re confronted by a pigeon, be friendly. Say Hello. Maybe throw him a French fry or some popcorn or a peanut or two. Show some respect. He may not be as high on the food chain as we are, but he’s licensed to fly close to Heaven without a plane ticket.
I’ve always wanted to have a pair of white doves. Their call is so beautiful and relaxing but I don’t have the heart to cage a free animal. I have at least one pair of turtle doves in my backyard which I love. When my kids were little, we were privileged to have a pair build a nest in our living room window. It was so exciting to watch day by day as the eggs hatched and the babies grew. I’ll never forget it.
Sorry, I can’t get on board with either of these birds. A pigeon pooped on me once as I was going into René’s house so I hate them!! And you know they call them a murder of crows for a reason – have you seen The Birds?? I have 2 birds of choice. The first is the beautiful cardinal. Once we were sitting at the table in the Everlou house and cardinals flew past the window. There must have been a dozen, it was amazing. My second is the hummingbird. We have feeders on our deck and sometimes Mark can get them to eat out of his hand. They are beautifully iridescent and live here year round. So I can easily tolerate some birds but the 2 you’ve highlighted today are not the ones. Not sure where that puts me on the birdbrain scale.
I am a bird lover, could be more on board if they could be potty trained. Not very knowledgeable though. We have many species here in Texas, but the one that makes it self most seen is the Raven. I had not very much interaction with the Raven before, not even through Poe. At first I wasn’t much impressed. As time went on I noted how iridescent they are, similar to the hummingbird. Then I noticed some different sounds as I was walking through a parking lot. Come to find out they can mimic several different “things”. They do look similar to the crow at first glance, but at a closer look they are smaller, slender and sleek. Not named as aggressively as the crow, but a group of Raves are called “an unkindness”. Hmm. They have not been unkind to me, but they gather in large groups in the parking lots here. I’ve been told that’s because of humans though. People come to feed them. This makes for a mess, and hard to get into the stores. These have little fear of humans or cars unfortunately. Again, human intervention. We live in a neighborhood called Ravensway, there is civil war history to it, our kids learned about it in school here. They did not share the info.
Well, I would have a pet bird, preferably a rescue, but then again, I would have a pet anything!!
I would like to reiterate that my knowledge is little when it comes to birds. We do have Ravens here, but the prominent bird I am seeing is the Grackle. Unfortunately a group of grackles is called a plague. The qualities I listed above are true, but I had the wrong name. Apologies.