# Whistling



## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Do pigeons communicate by whistling?

I often hear some whistling in my area. If my ferals are on the balcony at the time they will perk up to attention and suddenly fly off as fast as they can. They'll then join a flock doing a few circuits around the neighbourhood.

So is it them whistling? If so how do they whistle?
What other ways of communicating do they have?


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Silly questions?


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Unless I've missed it all these years, pigeons don't really whistle .. they roo and coo and make interesting combinations of the roos and coos. Perhaps the squeaks of a baby or youngster could be considered whistling, but even those sounds are a bit different than whistling.

Terry


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## jameswaller (Nov 4, 2008)

*whistling*



malfunctional said:


> Do pigeons communicate by whistling?
> 
> I often hear some whistling in my area. If my ferals are on the balcony at the time they will perk up to attention and suddenly fly off as fast as they can. They'll then join a flock doing a few circuits around the neighbourhood.
> 
> ...


the whistling that you are hearing sounds manmade//-pigeons make lots of different-noises,but i have not heard whistling,,,twinkie purrs in my ear-when he is happy,,,sincerely james waller


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

Thanks for the comments. I must admit that for several months I had no idea how my pigeons knew exactly when to all scramble off and join the flock. Then I realised there were always a few high pitched whistles before they scrambled off. I appreciate that these could be man made but it is quite a coincidence. Perhaps I'm describing the sound wrongly, but how do pigeons communicate over a few hundred metres? They all seem to know when to fly off and they also all seem to know when to hide from a hawk or such like.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

They generally communicate intentions by body language, often too subtle for us to see unless we are taking time to really study them. The sudden action when one or more spots a hawk, or decides to take off to get exercise, or is just startled by something will usually prompt response by the rest of them. Much the same when a flock is just circling around or perching up on a roof and one spots potential food .. there seem to be these 'signals' which observant fellow pigeons pick up on.

John


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## Siam Sam (May 16, 2009)

That's odd. Mine was the first reply yesterday, saying we had never heard our ferals whistle. But that post is gone now. I wonder if I hit "Go Advanced" and then forgot actually to post it.

Anyway, we've never heard our ferals whistling.


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## jmaxpsi (Jul 31, 2009)

Just your regular coo and cooing, but mostly body language. They do make a noise of warning that sounds like saying "Ooh", but imagine a pigeon making it. I try to mock it when I see a plane or big bird flying above and my pigeon does respond by tilting to the side and look up with one side of the eye and getting ready to speed off. But the whistle is probably someone whistling and calling their pigeons it's time to chow. So they all fly to go feed.


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## ezemaxima (Jan 12, 2008)

You probably have a neighbor that's feeding them too and he uses a high pitch whistle to call them.


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

I'm going to have to record the sounds for everyone. It's like a pew pew type sound. They generally don't seem to go anywhere to feed or anything like that after the sound. They just circle around in the flock. Perhaps it's another bird making the noise that they join in flight. 

I have an egg!


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## malfunctional (Jan 27, 2009)

I'm going to have to record the sounds for everyone. It's like a pew pew type sound. They generally don't seem to go anywhere to feed or anything like that after the sound. They just circle around in the flock. Perhaps it's another bird making the noise that they join in flight. 

I have an egg!


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## jmaxpsi (Jul 31, 2009)

Could be someone is training their birds as they should react to a blow of a whistle. I've seen it before when a flock is flying and the sound of the whistle causes to change direction. This could be the only thing I can think of, until we hear the sound you are talking about.


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## dickiebird (Oct 3, 2009)

Some pigeon wings make a whistling sound when they fly. I've heard this is to alert the flock to danger.


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## caprella (Oct 5, 2009)

*whistling wings*



dickiebird said:


> Some pigeon wings make a whistling sound when they fly. I've heard this is to alert the flock to danger.


I have heard this as well. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/02/pigeon-wing-alarm.html


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## drifter (Oct 7, 2009)

Well, some hawks make a sound that might be described as sort of a whistling sound.


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