# Do Pigeons Have Friends?



## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Have you noticed any of your mated hens having girlfriends? KD had always tended to follow Grace around when they were out together - Grace being the leader and KD the follower. For about a month, KD was away from the coop until she and new mate Charlie were ready to re-join the main group. The first day back, I put out the bath pan and KD jumped in, followed by Grace. During the entire time in the water, they were always touching, even if just a wing tip. While drying off, they lay side by side - you could not have slipped a paper between them.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi TerriB,



Since my situation, or, the various Bird's situations here are different from those Birds who enjoy a more permenent home, being as I aid the wayward, injured, ill or orphan of them, I very rarely have had any mated Pairs in here for the Hen (or the Cock) to have friends.

But I do notice various Birds in here, especially the young ones, will make friends with others, sometimes other species, and stand near or sleep near and eat next to eachother in comfort and ease.

The very young of course, even of different species, tend to make friends of eachother readily...and continue to enjopy these feiendships, preening eachother and sleeping close as siblings might do.

The friendship you describe of your two Hens sounds very sweet...

When I had a large flight pen Aviary years ago, sometimes two youngish Pigeon Hens would pair up, build a nest, be tender to oneanother, lay four Eggs, and take turn incubating them...the eggs were infertile of course, but that would have been a great set-up had I needed surrogate parents for some very young orphan Babys...and the two Hens I am sure would have been delighted...!


Phil
Las Vegas


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi TerriB,

I have only noticed on occassion when I had more hens then males, the hens befriended each other for company and would sleep in the same cubby and prune and pick each others feathers, but as soon as more males came in the coop, they each mated up with the male of their choice. 

I think it is really neat that KD and Grace have this connection.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Pigeons are certainly social animals, but I did read somewhere that a pigeon's priorities are 1. survive 2. look after his/her mate (even if it's only keeping rivals away from her  )

I reckon KD and Grace may be unusual - or is it that hens are more sociable with each other anyway, than males would be?

We have a couple of hens who were quite bitter rivals for the 'affections' of "Chubby Checker", yet now all three birds are often found sitting on a whole bunch of plastic eggs together!

It's a fact that siblings will stay together for quite a while after fledging sometimes, and it's not uncommon (like has been said) for hens to pair up, but I don't think pigeons really form 'friendships' with other pigeons in our understanding of the relationship. It seems , from my observations, more that they mostly 'get on OK' as long as their personal space is respected by others.

But... when Cynthia had two of the white rescues in the spare bedroom, there did seem to be some kind of bond, maybe because "Serenity" is a squeaker and "Peace" is an adult. Even if Serenity flew onto Peace's perch - the highest of a stack of boxes - rather than chase him off, Peace would take the next perch down, specially when Serenity squeaked pitifully and twitched his wings 

Now there is a new adult collared dove (which the vet assistant thought was a 'baby pigeon!), and Cynthia put her and Serenity in a big cage. They actually roost on a shelf snuggled up together, despite being different species. 

Our pet CD "Poppet" does seem to have a kind of 'friendship' with our tame Woodpigeon "Littlewood". They vie for human attention, and Poppet frequently chases Littlewood off a perch if we are there, yet they spend a lot of time perching together and roosting on the same perch, so one wonders.. 

John


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