My Urban Sherpa

We love NYC pigeons

Now that pigeon poaching has been identified as a genuine problem, how about some love for the much-maligned Columba livia, a.k.a. Rock Pigeon (The bird formerly known as Rock Dove)?

According to BirdWeb.com, the Rock Pigeon is “originally from Europe, Northern Africa, and India” but was “introduced it to North America in the 1600s.” Since then, of course, “numbers have increased significantly as more and more of our country is urbanized.”

For some, the feral pigeon could be viewed as a nuisance (e.g. droppings, nests, etc.). But in all the thousands of years Columba livia have dwelled on this planet, did any of them ever feel the need to invent, say, nuclear weapons? No Rock Dove created pesticides, napalm, Agent Orange, or the internal combustion engine; you can’t blame cigarettes, greenhouse gases, hydroelectric dams, or waterboarding on a pigeon; and rest assured no non-human conjured up zoos, animal experimentation, factory farming, or the rodeo.