# Help! Found pigeon on porch



## solace2483 (Apr 22, 2008)

I have been reading through some posts. When I came home from work tonight there was a pigeon sitting by the stairs on my porch. I left for a few hours and when I came back he was still sitting there.
I could not bear to leave him all night. So I filled a box with shredded newspaper and put a t-shirt. I picked him up and put him in there. I live in an apartment (in Chicago) and have 3 cats and some other animals. I have him shut in the box locked in the bathroom. We gave him a sugar/salt/water bowl. 
He seems sick, he was just sitting there the whole time.

I am leaving town tomorrow and won't be back until Wednesday afternoon.

What can I do for him? I named him Billy. For some reason I just had a feeling it was male. I want him to live, but have no idea what to do for a bird.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Pick the bird up and bring him inside.
Where are you located?


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## nikku-chan (Jan 18, 2008)

hehe..did you read the post at all, charis?


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## naturegirl (Nov 7, 2005)

Well if you are coming into Michigan you can drop him off at my place and I could take care of him from there. 

Cindy


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Thank you for rescuing this bird, if you want him to live you have the option to drop him off at Cindy's.

and please follow these steps:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=8822


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

nikku-chan said:


> hehe..did you read the post at all, charis?


Not well enough. heheh


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## solace2483 (Apr 22, 2008)

I would love to drop him off if I can. I am actually heading to Detroit, but I am leaving around 10-11 (Chicago time).
I will check here before I go. 
He was moving around this morning. I kept him in my room so the cats would not bother him.


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## naturegirl (Nov 7, 2005)

Are you going to be by the Silver Dome around 4:00pm? My husband works across the street at the Crystler Research Center there and he will be heading home around 4:00 - 4:15 pm if you can make it there then he can bring it home from work. Let me know. I will Private message you my phone number ok? 

Cindy


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

HI solace;

Come up on the PM if you do not get my e-mail.
I will pick him up.


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## solace2483 (Apr 22, 2008)

Thank you to everyone here for your help. Grimaldy picked him up tonight and is going to care for the young lad. 
I feel good to have helped. I kind of miss him already. I look forward to hearing about how he is doing and knowing he will eventually be able to fly around free.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

That is great news. Thank you for letting us know. Now you live in Chicago...right?!


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Solace 2483 did a great job with her new visitor.

It is a baby squeeker, still with pin feathers and not fully fledged.
Sadly suffering from malnourishment, but that is the lot of the feral pigeon.

Anyway in about one month it should be ready to strike out on its own; Solace believes she knows where its flock hangs out, so when he has a few more feathers and feels more like flying, Solace will release him there. Meantime he will board with me.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Great news Grimaldy. Best wishes for this little guy.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

To Solace;

Your little guy is doing very well. I picked up three other babies in the course of my travels and they all bunk together. He is growing like a weed, in fact I doubt if you would recognize him now. He just lives for dinner time and my greatest problem is keeping him from raiding the other bird's food dishes.

I would give him at least another two weeks or so until we can be certain he is a strong flier, then I will contact you so you can release him.
Kind regards,


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Grimaldy said:


> To Solace;
> 
> Your little guy is doing very well. I picked up three other babies in the course of my travels and they all bunk together. He is growing like a weed, in fact I doubt if you would recognize him now. He just lives for dinner time and my greatest problem is keeping him from raiding the other bird's food dishes.
> 
> ...


Wouldn't it be better if he could be released with his new buddies? They are likely the only family he remembers now....Hopefully a soft release too.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

You would certainly think it a good idea to release them all together, but.....

Last year I picked up a couple of squeekers at about the same location, a week or so apart. One day I let them both out for some exercise and they rush over to each other like a couple of long lost friends, patting each other with their little wings, pecking each other on the face, hugging each other, etc. So I put them together and let them grow together for a month or so. By that time it is clear to me it is a male and a female and they are both stuck together. Anyway come time to release them, so I take them both out to the location where I picked them up. The male takes off like a shot without so much as a look at the little female. She stays perched on my hand for a while, looking at me like "what should I do now" and then takes off herself. I have never seen them together since. Apart, yes several times, but not together.

Solace's bird is from an urban residential neighborhood, trees, streets with people and kids. The other two I found under the stairways going up to elevated train tracks downtown at a pretty busy location with lots of vehicle traffic. The third is from another location a few blocks away, but pretty much the same. The urban birds protect their turf I have noticed and will drive a stranger away. I always try to release a squab back to the flock he originated from in the hope he will not be seen as an outsider. Sometimes they are accepted in and sometimes I just never see them again.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Grimaldy said:


> You would certainly think it a good idea to release them all together, but.....
> 
> Last year I picked up a couple of squeekers at about the same location, a week or so apart. One day I let them both out for some exercise and they rush over to each other like a couple of long lost friends, patting each other with their little wings, pecking each other on the face, hugging each other, etc. So I put them together and let them grow together for a month or so. By that time it is clear to me it is a male and a female and they are both stuck together. Anyway come time to release them, so I take them both out to the location where I picked them up. The male takes off like a shot without so much as a look at the little female. She stays perched on my hand for a while, looking at me like "what should I do now" and then takes off herself. I have never seen them together since. Apart, yes several times, but not together.
> 
> ...


The situation you experienced is less likely to occur with a soft release. For a young pieon that has always had a ceiling and walls, the outdoors is overwhelming and I would think it natural to just fly way away and fast,totally out of fear.
You may be doing soft releases and if not, it takes more time and planning but it's worth it as the survival of the pigeon may depend soley on how they are prepared by their rehabber.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Suggestions are always welcome Chris.


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## little bird (Aug 11, 2006)

Hi Grimaldy, I'm very concerned that the flock that this baby, "billy" came from is not in an area where there is enough food available for the flock. Solace2483 gave you the bird & you said it was malnourished when you got it.....that is why I'm concerned about releasing it back to the original flock. Obviously you observe and care for your neighborhood flock and I sincerely believe the bird would have a better chance of survival and future care if it was in YOUR flock. I truly believe it would not be in the best interests of the bird to give it back to Solace2483 for release.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Hi lb,

Mal nourishment, or living on the edge of starvation is pretty much the lot of all feral pigeons wherever you find them. The various wildlife organizations financed by the states report that 70% of the birds hatched each year fail to live to see their second year, largely as a result of starvation. That number applied to feral pigeons in my experience is low, I would put the number at closer to 90%.

Like human beings, lack of sufficient food to sustain life, laying aside nutrients and vitamins, brings forward common diseases like salmonella, canker, E.coli, campylobacter, clostirum, viruses, etc that any well nourished bird or human can shrug off with a few days of just feeling "under the weather". For a starving human or bird it is the kiss of death. It is my own personal pet peeve with people who try to stop me from feeding feral pigeons, that at some level those people know that and want the birds to die.

So, in a perfect world, I would like to see the squab live on and be strong, but that is very unlikely to happen. At this point all I can do is give him a running start.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

As an addition, 
Solace is one of those kind souls who found a baby pigeon dying on her front porch and decided to do something about it. She could have simply ignored it or swept it off into the street to let nature take its course. She did not do that.

When I picked the bird up from her, Solace said to me that she just wanted to see it live. I intend to do my best to see her wish is carried out; and she is going to have the privilege of seeing it go back as a strong healthy bird.


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## little bird (Aug 11, 2006)

Wouldn't she rather see it released into your flock where it would have a far greater chance to survive?


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

How would you suggest we find such a flock?


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## little bird (Aug 11, 2006)

I'm sorry, Grimaldy,....I don't know why but I kinda thought you had a local flock that you sort of oversee. I assume from your question that you don't....my mistake.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

No harm done little bird;

I actually keep tabs on six flocks on a daily basis in the downtown area. All with out exception suffer from malnutrition. On the few occasions when I have found a lost racer I was always astonished at how well fed and cared for those birds were.

The feral pigeon lives right on the metabolic knife edge and somehow they continue to survive.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

I agree that most ferals live on the brink of starvation. I honestly don't see how they manage to survive even a year. At the museum where we volunteer once a week, our duty station is at a large group of windows and for about 3 weeks we have watched pigeons fly from the pipes at the top of our building, cross the extremely busy street, swoop down and pick up a piece or two of bedding for their nest, fly back across the street and into the pipes. They do this continually and that requires a great deal of stamina. That doesn't even count having to find food and water for the adults as well as babies.

We put food out nearly every day for them as well as sparrows but we rarely see the pigeons eating which I don't understand.

Grimaldy, thank you for all you do. Releasing them is the absolute worst part of rehabbing and one of these days I'm going to quit just because I can't stand to go through that agony any more.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Maggie, I totally agree with the letting go part of it. If it's a soft release though, that does ease my mind because it gives them a chance to integrate and get their barrings. If it's an adult, it isn't necessary of course.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

I dunno LT,

After I get them patched up and fed for a few weeks, they start wing slaps or trying to bite. I have always taken that as the signal they want to go.

There have only been two cases where I took them out and they looked around like "what am I supposed to do now?", so I picked them back up and found out that they really couldn't fly and they had been hiding it all that time.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Grimaldy, oh, I'm sure they want to go - it is me that has the problem.  However, we just bite the bullet, and try to look after them as much as we can when they're released.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Grimaldy said:


> I dunno LT,
> 
> After I get them patched up and fed for a few weeks, they start wing slaps or trying to bite. I have always taken that as the signal they want to go.
> 
> There have only been two cases where I took them out and they looked around like "what am I supposed to do now?", so I picked them back up and found out that they really couldn't fly and they had been hiding it all that time.


The wing slaps and pecking is a signal that they are staring to separate from you eomtionally although not necessarily ready to be on their own. If you do a soft release, it's much safer for them. 
I'll post the link for you.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

*This Is Excillent!!*

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=10874


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Good idea Chris,

If Solace is still following this thread it will give ger some ideas.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

It's Charis not Chris but it usually takes folks a while to get it straight! I usually give them 3 months and if they don't have my name right by then...I give them 3 more.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Charis said:


> It's Charis not Chris but it usually takes folks a while to get it straight! I usually give them 3 months and if they don't have my name right by then...I give them 3 more.


  That's funny Chris..........oopppss....I mean Charis........


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Grimaldy said:


> Good idea Chris,
> 
> If Solace is still following this thread it will give ger some ideas.


To me, it seems that if I can't give them some tools for survival, it makes no sense to go through the rehab experience in the first place. Kind of like sending my kid to college with no money and therefore no way to get in.


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## solace2483 (Apr 22, 2008)

I am excited to see the little guy again. I always think about him. I want him to be happy and out there flying.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

You would think so, but I have noticed that feral pigeons guard their turf and drive strangers away. I always release squabs back to their own flocks in the hope they will be recognized as members. Sometimes I just never see them again, but many stay. I personally think the urban pigeon, as opposed to the city center pigeon, has better survival options, but I don't really know.

They also tend to be buddies in the box, but as they get bigger they start sorting themselves out for a pecking order and tend to bully the smaller ones. In a cage there is no way for the little ones to get away from them so it requires constant checking.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Well Solace,

Your Billie boy is getting quite big now and needs to move on. Give me a call or send me a PM on this board about a meeting. The same place where I picked him up? Sunday work for you?

By the way, I will put a small yellow unmarked band on his leg so if you ever see him again you will be able to recognize him.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Well Solace released her Billy boy yesterday afternoon. After a few false starts he spotted the other members of his flock and joined right in.

Thank -you to Solis! As sajid says, If you help a bird he will pray for you.


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## solace2483 (Apr 22, 2008)

I have been trying to spot Billy, but haven't been able to tell which he is. They stay on the top of the 3 story building so I can't see them very well. I look every day tho. I hope to try and post a picture of him soon.
It felt very good to see him go back up to his flock.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

A small pair of 8X binoculars is very good for bird watching and they can be had fairly cheaply on the Net. They are also excellent for reading bands.


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