Subject: [Tweeters] band-tailed Pigeon in Centralia
Date: Nov 25 14:18:59 2004
From: J Bonham - jvbonham at msn.com


For the last week a band tailed pigeon has taken up roosting on our feeder tree. It has been very interesting watching the few birds that are still here after the Cooper's Hawk react to the pigeon. The pigeon sits on the middle arm of our six arm feeder tree, eating at will from the only tube feeder with black sunflower seeds. It will come by about 8:00am each morning, just about the time the jays are through with their daily ration of peanuts. Today the jays got fed later, and it was worth it to watch the interchange between the pigeon and the jays. The jays sat there in the laurels for awhile trying to figure out the situation. Eventually one of the jays got fed up with not being fed and came down, sat beside the pigeon on the same feeder arm, and the two of them just looked at each other for several minutes. Eventually they must have come to an agreement because the pigeon went back to feeding, the jay jumped down into the platform peanut feeder, grabbed a peanut, and flew off. With that established, the rest of the jays took turns as usual, taking peanuts in turn, totally ignoring the pigeon.

This pigeon showed up for the first time last Saturday. It landed on the feeder arm, and was obviously in extreme distress. It was totally not alert, and just sat there starring with very little eye movement and no body movements at all. Its feathers were all ruffled out, and it showed signs of extreme distress. After about half an hour it came to enough to eat a minute or two out of the black sunflower feeder. It sat there for about another fifteen or twenty minutes, and we could see it start to gain a little alertness. As the time went by the pigeon ate more, gaining alertness faster and faster with each additional beakful of sunflower seeds. After about two hours it flew off, only to be back two hours later. I looked out once this week and saw it sitting in the birdbath. It was so large that the birdbath overflowed because of the size of this bird.

I have looked the bird up and it seems to be past its time to migrate a little further than here in Centralia. Does anyone have any knowledge on the migration times and patterns of this band tailed pigeon? It is a juvenile, and I am somewhat worried about it. My hope is that it is just recuperating before it migrates on to a more hospitable climate for the winter.

The family joke is that I have been telling everyone that there was our Thanksgiving dinner. It is really a large bird, not so much lengthwise, but the width of it is really amazing to us. One of my "steroidal jays" sat beside it today, and the length was very similar. The size around it was so different, though, as the jay was so trim and sleek that the two were in no way comparable other than just the length. It is really fun to watch this bird, especially since all my other birds have left the area since the Cooper's Hawk was here three weeks ago or so!

Today is Thanksgiving and the pigeon is safe. It is eating away right now on the sunflower seeds, while the turkey is in the oven.

J.V.Bonham
Centralia, WA
jvbonham at msn.com<mailto:jvbonham at msn.com>