Bird of the Month: Feral pigeon John Mcewen

The 228 pigeon hybrids, including tumbler, pouter, fantail, carrier, racing and the feral ( ferox, wild) farmyard or city pigeon, are all classified Columbia livia. They all originate in the sea-cavedwelling rock dove/pigeon, now (in Britain) found only in the cliffs of north-west Scotland and Ireland.

Pigeons are the oldest domesticated bird. They provide food and sport and reliably deliver messages. ‘Pigeonhole’ derives from dovecotes and pigeonhouses, which still produce squabs (nestlings) for the table. Knowing ‘squab’ helped Judith Keppel win Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2000.

Until the ‘clay pigeon’ was introduced, they were prime shooting targets. Their homing instinct has been refined to create champions of racing – a regal sport for aeons. The Queen has won every major UK pigeon race, and soon her 160 birds will have a £40,000 loft at Sandringham. The record price for a bird is $300,000. Little wonder the current UK peregrine population of more than a thousand breeding pairs so angers the 42,000 pigeon owners – pigeons being the peregrine’s favourite prey.

The bird’s homing ability made it an emblem of hope, as Noah’s dove returning to the ark with an olive leaf attests (Genesis: 8:11).

Picasso’s father was a pigeon painter, once a popular genre. Picasso’s drawings of doves of peace for Unicef et al are even more iconic than those of Georges Braque, his fellow founder of Cubism. And he called his daughter Paloma (Dove).

There are still ‘pigeon posts’ – Reuters began as one – and in Afghanistan carrier pigeons are banned by the Taliban. Their military importance in both world wars is permanently commemorated by Bletchley Park’s Pigeons at War display. Criminally, pigeon corpses stuffed with drugs etc are lobbed by accomplices into prisons.

The escapees from all these strands meet in the derided feral pigeon: Woody Allen’s script for Stardust Memories branded them ‘rats with wings’. Recent years have seen them persecuted in the world’s cities; but they have notable champions. Marilyn Monroe regularly paid urchins to release the ones they had caught for the New York meat market. Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld made them a much-loved feature of his commentaries.

Ferals can be radiantly plumaged and are wonderful flyers. They clean the streets of takeaway scraps and are a perpetual amusement: in London they travel by tube and stop the traffic by using the zebra crossing in Regent’s Park.

For many of us, they are our closest bird and we take comfort from their crooning companionship.

On shallow slates the pigeons shift together,

Backing against a thin rain from the west

Blown across each sunk head and settled feather.

Huddling round the warm stack suits them best…

Philip Larkin, from Pigeons

Yet, for all their numbers, you rarely see a dead one. They seek the dark to die, true to their cave-dwelling heredity.