# Cooing at your pigeons - bad idea?



## CooCooBird (Dec 1, 2016)

I've been getting to know my two new pigeons by speaking to them or singing through the bars of their cage. I am not sure of the sex of either of them, though I suspect at least one (the older one) is male. I'm getting them DNA'd next week.

This evening I was singing a song with a lot of "oo" noises in it. The younger bird is more friendly than the other, and comes close to the bars to listen and peer at me. It reacted strongly to a certain note, raising its head, fluffing its neck ruff (they're Jacobins) and its pupils grew and shrank. So, I tried imitating a few of the coos I'd heard from this bird, and it seemed interested but didn't return the coos. 

Next I tried the coos with the older bird. Immediately he fluffed his "mane", inflated his upper chest, bobbed his head and began making a much deeper and louder coo, while lowering his body to a horizontal position with tail touching the ground. It was similar to what I've seen male feral pigeons do when they are wooing a female, except he stayed in one spot facing me and didn't circle around. 

We had a "coo-versation" for a few minutes, with me making the higher pitched coos and him making his deep rumbling coos. While we were doing this, the other bird ignored us. After a while I left the room and went to the other end of my apartment. Then I heard the deep cooing coming from the living room for a while. 

I'm just a bit concerned that I might be getting this male riled up to the point that he might attack the other bird if it turns out to be male. It's a juvenile now but almost fully grown. I also don't want the male to be "calling" me with this deep coo all the time, expecting that I'm his mate. I know that single pet pigeons often view their human keepers as a mate and I don't have a problem with this. But I don't want to cause fighting between the two birds. 

So is it OK for me to "exchange coos" with my pigeons, or is it a bad idea? Does anyone else do this?


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## Ladygrey (Dec 10, 2016)

I think singing is fine, and interesting to see how they react , even a loft full like mine all look at me when I sing or whistle something, but I don't think it's nessecary to coo, as you said they or the one may think your moving in on his or her turf and will act out to prevent it.


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## CooCooBird (Dec 1, 2016)

*I may have created a monster!*

Now my male likes to come to the cage bars facing where I am and do his deep cooing call. I took a video of what he does this afternoon, unfortunately it was a bit spoiled when the Budgie City in the background decided to join in (I tried yelling at them but it didn't help). The paler coloured one is the juvenile whose sex I won't know for sure until the DNA. He doesn't respond much to my chatting and cooing, but the male puffs himself up and coos a couple of times. They're more eager to respond when there's no bright phone video light in their faces. 

The juvenile flutters his eyelids and closes his eyes, pulling one foot up into his feathers if I speak to him softly. I wonder if I'll end up putting him to sleep one of these days!

https://youtu.be/S-hKyE0P420


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