Urban Birds – There’s a pigeon on my stoep

The majority of urban dwellers are familiar with the Feral Pigeon Columbia livia, a bird that has moved into cities with man worldwide. These birds are particularly interesting to scientists because of their success throughout the world. We are bound to see at least one bird everyday yet know very little about them. They are derived from wild ancestors although occur in many colour morphs.

In this study we shall investigate various aspects of the biology of this species. We shall gain an appreciation of this bird by studying different colour morphs in Pretoria . We shall attempt to answer questions such as:

1. Why are these birds so successful in cities and other birds not?
2. Are certain colour morphs at an advantage in a large city, e.g. are darker birds at an advantage because they can warm up more rapidly?
3. Do certain colour morphs court other particular morphs?
4. Why are these colour morphs still maintained in the wild and not all look like their ancestors?
5. Any other questions that may arise during the study.

We shall also investigate the perceptions of city dwellers to these birds and whether the phrases such as "Pigeons are dumb”, "They poop on people's heads”, and "They smell” are true.

• Craig Symes