Pigeons in the back...a lack

I maintain a small (20’ x 20’) urban backyard in Brooklyn and try to make it as visually pleasing as possible with perennials like hydrangea and forsythia, two evergreen firs and a wonderful weeping cherry tree. Every year I replenish the annuals in pots and plant borders of various ilk around the brick patio. To enhance the visuals using living feathered friends I not only have two birdbaths but I also spread birdseed along the back 40 (well, 4 maybe) because seeing the jays and cardinals and robins and grackles and sparrows frolic and feed and bathe is a thrill every time.

Over the years I’ve wondered why I have never seen pigeons in the yard even though flocks of them sometimes create patterns of aerodynamic wizardry in my neighborhood sky. Not that I mind, mind you, because pigeons are, as any car owner can attest, shit-machines of the highest order. But I wonder no more because the solution fell out of the sky, as it were, via the April 29th issue of the Science Times.

According to the director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca pigeons in the wild prefer nesting on cliffs and feeding in open areas, thus avoiding predators. Urban pigeons, whose food supply consists almost solely of food discarded by humans (giving a new meaning to the word “droppings”) tend to gather in open spaces and nest in the cliff-like nooks and crannies of tall buildings. “Backyards with flowers, shrubs or trees,” says director Miyoko Chu, “can provide excellent sources of food for other birds, but they don’t offer pigeons an appealing menu in their favorite place to dine: on the ground.”

It’s nice pigeons avoid my yard but it’s also nice to know why. I presume my lack of seagulls and geese have similar explanations but I won’t bother asking Mr. Chu because, really, now that the pigeon conundrum is solved, I don’t really give a…er, damn.