# Wet pigeon



## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Hi All

I was just wondering, pigeons don't seem to mind the rain. Why is this?
I'm in Cape Town and it's winter so there is often rain, but the feral pigeons are always all perched on the roof tops in the rain without a care in the world.

More importantly I have a pair ferals nesting on my balcony and today is the first day it's actually raining on the flower pot they have made their nest in. Should I move it out of the rain? Or would they be quite happy with it where it is? I don't really want to disturb them as I'd love to have a new batch of eggs.


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## Snowy_pied_chic (Feb 19, 2009)

Well, most pigeons I know are waterproof, which should protect them from the cold to a certain extent. Not sure about the second question so bumping up for another more experienced player to see


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Thanks. I'm going to leave them. They seem perfectly happy nesting in the rain. Very strange behaviour though, but probably normal for pigeons. Dad sits in the pot with his head almost buried in the sand, cooing away with wing tips fluttering and Mom can hardly get into the pot so most the time she spends trying to get comfortable climbing all over his head. He really doesn't seem to mind though as he still coos away happily.


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Hmm actually as I write this a big day of nest building is happening. Dad has is busy on about his 50th trip bringing in a tiny twig at a time. So cute!


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

It seems that Mom is the engineer in the family. She builds the nest. Dad just provides the raw materials.


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## jmaxpsi (Jul 31, 2009)

malfunctional said:


> It seems that Mom is the engineer in the family. She builds the nest. Dad just provides the raw materials.


Well it seems like with most of my pigeons, the hen sits on the nest and the cock goes and gathers most of the product. It 's always fun to watch them pick it up and test it, weigh it, make sure it's the right size, and so forth.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Guess it depends on how frequently it's likely to rain on the nest and what your temperatures may be in this season.

When I first had pigeons nesting on my balcony it was winter in southern England and down to freezing. Winter tends to vary between dry but freezing or below, and just plain cold and wet.

Though my balcony is reasonably sheltered, having the floor of the one above as a roof, and a solid 5 ft outside wall except for a 4 inch gap between it and the balcony floor, I'm situated such that I get the blast of gale force winds off the sea which can sweep rain across the balcony. 

Mostly, the pigeons were nesting in a pot somewhat sheltered by an even larger pot with a fan palm in it, but I was (maybe needlessly) concerned about the babies getting wet once they were big enough not to have a parent sitting full time. They were trusting enough that I could rig up some shelter over their nest, but of course not all ferals are so tolerant of the giants bumbling around changing things 

As I say, I probably worried without cause, but then I was pretty new to looking out for my 'feral friends'.

John


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Hi John

Thanks for the info. After they started building a nest full speed yesterday I just decided to leave them. Luckily I'm not in England so it's not too cold and it's sunny again. They are a little strange though. They have built a nice nest, but they only seem to spend a couple of hours in it a day. I'm not sure where they sleep at night.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

I'd expect that once the hen is about ready to be dropping eggs, they will probably both be well and truly on the nest. Leastways, that's how our pairs in the aviary usually behave.

John


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## plamenh (Aug 11, 2006)

Yeah, the weather down in Cape can be really wet. I would put some protection over the pot/nest. Babies are not protected as parents and you don’t want eggs floating either.
Do not move pot though, you can scare them.


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

I have an egg. I'll watch over the nest next time it rains, but I think they should be okay.


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