# LVNV Ferals - photo heavy



## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

Mentioned in another post doing some "unofficial studies" on the feral pigeon populations in Las Vegas Nevada in a small area around Tropicana/McLeod and Sunset Park. 
I say "unofficial" since these were not done for any club, state orgianization or health department. Rather it was more or less done by a few bird lovers that needed an excuse to spend 14+ hours a day playing with the birds. lol. We had the testing done by a Biolab in Florida, and received financial assistance (for the testing and microchipping costs) from two area veterinarians.

I personally kept individual tabs on over 300 adult and one juvenile birds. This was done/added-to daily across a 2 year span, around 180 of "my" birds were captured for microchipping and DNA tissue testing(health & sex), the rest were just photographed and admired for doing what birds do.


Wanted to go ahead and share some photos of just a few of the beauties from "my study" since I had someone PM me for more information when I mentioned a web-footed squab that was part of the "study". Figured I'd share the gang with anyone who wants to see them.
So, here they are....










DNA tested Female, affectionately known as Peg Leg, or Peggy. She was a bit of a hobbler when she walked, but she flew perfect. We debated about keeping her captive, however by the time we captured her for microchipping and testing her leg had already healed over and showed no signs of infection or major future problems. We mutually decided to let her keep on doing what she does. 










Unknown sex, we were never able to capture this one. Very flighty bird. Absolutely gorgeous when s/he flew since all primaries were solid white and secondaries were mostly black.










A group shot of a few of the Sunset Park 'test subjects'.










Another non-catchable, but could be a male since he strutted around like gods gift to hens!


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## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

DNA tested Male, he definitely stands out in a crowd! He never did receive an official call-name, but we lost track of him a few months into the study. Apparent hawk attack victim.










Bright, shy but sassy little Female. Her nickname was Crabby. She was shy, but very aggressive with younger/smaller birds. She also had personal issues with the grackles that frequented the area and picked on quite a few of the youngsters.










Another flashy little Female. This one had a much nicer attitude in general, and was not near as shy as Crabby. We found her body on Tropicana Blvd less than 1 year into the "study" so she will be missed.










This little one was the source of the PM asking for more info, which lead to this post. I call him Webber and did not get microchipped or DNA tested, but he was one of just 2 definite web-footed birds we came across. And a cutie patootie if I do say so myself.


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## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

Female, who also had feathered feet. Quite the photo ham really, she managed to get herself into around 20 different photos. lol










I really liked this ones coloring, but s/he was another we were unable to catch. 










Hawk attack survivor. This young Male had a few problems but was one tough cookie. We nicknamed him Niner, as in 9 lives.










One of the prettiest Females, in my opinion, out and about. We called her Della, a close-ish name to Ghirardelli, a brand of chocolate.


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## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

This Male was removed from the population for health reasons. We called him Benji during the "study" and on the paperwork, but his official name now is Don Juan because he turned into quite the sexy boy, so I hear. Ill have to get an updated photo of him.



Now for some random, group and non-pigeon shots.










Group shot.










Always underfoot!










One of the young grackles that was a common punching bag for Sassy and her band of meanies. Some new feathers coming in for this little one.


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## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

Grackle with an injured foot.










The embarrassing bad-feather-day stage during molt.










You can't see me! I blend right in!










If I stand real still, you'll never see me hiding in the background!


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Thanks for sharing...those pics made my day.

The one which is/was primarily white actually looks like he/she had some Homer in her/his bloodline...doesn't look like a feral Feral.

Thanks again for sharing...great pics.

Just curious, does your study look only at physiological stuff, or are you also tracking behavioural aspects ???


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## Microcat (Nov 22, 2010)

Jaye said:


> Thanks for sharing...those pics made my day.
> 
> The one which is/was primarily white actually looks like he/she had some Homer in her/his bloodline...doesn't look like a feral Feral.
> 
> ...


There are no doubt many Homer crosses. We found some birds with AU bands, a couple got claimed, a couple did not. One of the unclaimed AU males is my boy now, Andy. I'm sure there are some banded birds not yet noticed and claimed, and I wouldn't doubt they have mated.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pics. I enjoyed sharing them! Looking over them again makes me itch to go back and see "my" birds. 

For the most part we just looked at physical attributes, it originally started out as a color study focusing on the non-typical ferals such as the stark white ones and the mosaic types since they are the easiest to tell apart in a group, but a few months into that and it got a little more complex. 
The ones that were caught were weighed, measured, unique marks were photographed or sketched into a record book, injuries were made note of (such as Peg Leg). They were microchipped, physically checked for external parasites, and DNA tissue tested for sex and blood panel tested for disease.

In addition to that, we also had occasions where 6 feet of kitestring had to be removed from ones legs as the entire length was wrapped tightly around both legs and feet; a few hawk attack victims received a bit of extra care before being released; one of the hawk attack victims received stitches and remained in captivity; a couple had apparent BB gun injuries; one female swooped when she should have lifted and was hit by a car, we got to her just a few minutes after the accident but too many internal injuries were dealt, she only survived a couple hours.

It originally started out as just one step above simply admiring them in a park, and turned into a fun way to spend the days and, for me, a good excuse to exercise my photographic skills (or lack there of). 

Unfortunately, we never did see any nests, squabs or do any studies on youngsters. The youngest subject we had was Webber, the web-footed one. But he came a bit after the study, I first saw him just a couple weeks before I was scheduled to leave the state so, as much as I enjoyed him, not much was really done with him other than photos.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

The recessive red one and the mostly white splash look like domestics-gone-feral. Pretty birds!


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