# Question about Babies/Parents



## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

A pair of pigeons were nesting on the first floor fire escape of the lightwell in the building next to mine. This overlooks my building's driveway - I walk down it whenever I want to get to my car in the carport.

I would hear the squeaking babies when I walked by...I don't live on that side of the building so that's the only time I would hear them.

On July 29th a neighbor hit and killed one of the pigeons with his truck in the driveway, I found the body lying directly under the fire escape so I assume it was one of the parents.

I thought that the baby would be fed by the remaining parent. I would see the baby (now a juvenile) peeking over the fire escape ledge when I passed, and would say hi to it sometimes. I had been feeding the pigeons in the back, but because there was mesh put all around that fire escape and because the fire escape consisted of open metal slats, I couldn't feed this one - if I threw food up there it would just fall through the slats. So I settled for feeding the adult pigeons, thinking that if his parent was one of them, he'd be bringing food back to the baby.

A couple of weeks ago I found the baby standing in front of a truck (the same truck that had killed its parent). It had fallen or flown off the fire escape, and was just standing there, with a big bloody wound on the back of its neck - it went down to the bone, almost, they told me later. I took it to WildCare 20 miles north of here, where they said it also had a bad trich infection in its throat and crop, so they euthanized it. It was a fledling.

I've been thinking over and over again that perhaps it was starving or malnourished due to the death of its parent, and all that time it was getting weaker and the trich was able to take hold because it was undernourished and unhealthy, and all this was happening in front of my eyes.

So my question is, if one parent is killed, will the other parent keep feeding?

I think I am also having a hard time forgetting this little guy because I went and talked to the woman who lives in the studio whose window overlooks that fire escape, and she was really nasty. Not to me, but about the birds. She said she had an infection of mites in her apartment, and she hated the birds. She said that she had not hurt the bird, but I'm not sure she didn't hit him with something and knock him off the fire escape onto the driveway below. When I looked out her window I saw a nest, and a mummified dead baby. She was really glad that the baby was dead. She even asked why I hadn't just thrown it in the garbabe. I said "He was still alive." And she shrugged and said "He would have died soon enough, you could have saved yourself some time." 

Anyway I keep thinking about this poor little guy, his mommy (or daddy) gets killed, and he spends his entire life on a tiny fire escape, possibly starves, never flies once in his life and lives a few feet from someone who actively HATES him, then is wounded and dies. All the while, someone who claims to care for birds (me) is walking by every day.

I pride myself on being proactive with animal care but I think I really let this little guy down.

Anyway, do you think his remaining parent will nest there again? And do you think he was starving? I know I should just let it go.


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

I'm sorry you're dealing with all these problems, and that your neighbors are making it worse by their nasty attitudes. It doesn't sound like there was anything else you could have done. If something happens to one parent, the other parent will generally feed the baby. He may have been injured when he finally left his nest to fly, and fell on something sharp. It is always hard especially to see a young animal die.  Again, it sounds like you've done all you can, to me. It's an ongoing struggle for people like us to have to deal with people that don't see animals as beings worthy of life. It's very frustrating and saddening. Hopefully the parent will choose a different location for his next nest once he has a new mate. I hope you feel better, and thanks for doing all you could for the little guy.


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