Pigeons have a notorious reputation. They’re often called “city pests” and “rats with wings.” But they are much more: They dream, correct incompetent leaders–and much more. PETBOOK reveals eight fascinating facts about these birds with a bad image.
Why Pigeons Are Misunderstood
Pigeons are still misunderstood animals. Many people associate them with the droppings they leave on public places and cars and are annoyed by their constant cooing, which seems to be omnipresent, especially in big cities. The belief that the birds are unhygienic and spread diseases also persists in people’s minds. A claim that has long been scientifically debunked, according to the Erna Graff Foundation for Animal Protection.
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Pigeons Dream of Flying
In a study, scientists from Ruhr University Bochum and the Max Planck Institute found that similar processes occur in the brains of sleeping pigeons as in humans. Both humans and pigeons experience a REM sleep phase in which they dream.1
During REM sleep, the areas in pigeons’ brains that process visual stimuli and analyze how the environment changes during flight were particularly active. Also, the brain area that processes nerve signals during flying, including wing movements, was activated during REM sleep. These three facts suggest that pigeons dream of flying and relive their previous flight activities.
The fact that the amygdala–a part of the brain’s limbic system responsible for processing emotions–is also active in the animals during sleep suggests that the birds likely experience emotions in their dreams.
Pigeons Recognize Incompetent Leaders
Forget rigid social hierarchies: A study from Oxford University showed that pigeons can not only recognize incompetent leaders–they also correct them when they don’t perform their duties properly. In the experiment, researchers manipulated pigeons’ perception of day and night–a technique called “clock shifting.” Confused, the birds misinterpreted the sun’s position and flew in the wrong direction when released.
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The experiment’s result: The entire group went off course when all the birds were subjected to clock shifting. If only the group’s leader was affected, the group stayed on course–and even got the leader to fly in the right direction again. How exactly this works is still unclear to the researchers.2
They speculate that this might be because misguided leaders realize they have flown incorrectly. They then doubt their abilities and pay more attention to what the other group members are doing. Or the group members recognize the leader’s weakness and take more control themselves. Either way, the animals don’t blindly follow leaders who make mistakes.
Also interesting: Why animal rights activists criticize today’s homing pigeon breeding
Reading? No Problem for the Birds
Another study from the University of Otago in New Zealand showed that pigeons can recognize different words to some extent. In the study, 18 pigeons were trained to distinguish 308 four-letter words from random letter sequences. The pigeons were to peck at a symbol when shown a real word among thousands of random letter sequences. New words were introduced to the pigeons in each session.
Additionally, the words they had previously learned were repeated. After eight months, the four best pigeon students had learned an average of 14 words. The numbers are well below the average for primates–baboons could recognize an average of 139 words after eight months–but still show that the animals can learn to read.
Amazingly, after learning a number of words, the pigeons were quicker at recognizing a new, unfamiliar word. So, the animals learn faster over time.
Pigeons Learn Like Artificial Intelligence
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that pigeons learn similarly to artificial intelligence. In the study, scientists describe the functioning of the pigeon brain. The basic process of association is comparable to the learning ability of programs that operate on the “trial-and-error” principle.3
For this purpose, pigeons had to evaluate stimuli, which they were to categorize with different buttons. The test was designed so that no regularities were recognizable, and the answers could not be deciphered according to principles of logic. As a result, the animals had to remember the stimuli, and regions of the brain were activated that function like biological algorithms. These are naturally given to the animals, essentially the equivalent of programming artificial intelligence by humans.4 5
Pigeons Recognize People Again
A study conducted in Paris showed that pigeons have a good memory and can recognize people–even if they change clothes. Researchers discovered this by sending two people in different colored lab coats into a city park. Both fed the pigeons. One person let the birds eat in peace, while the other repeatedly chased them away.
After a short time, the researchers found that the pigeons avoided the person even when they weren’t being chased. Even after a coat swap, the birds recognized the person who had previously chased them away–and avoided them. Even when both people behaved neutrally toward the birds at the end of the experiment, the animals remembered who had let them eat in peace and who hadn’t.6
Birds with Taste
Pigeons even appreciate art and can distinguish between “good” and “bad” paintings–as suggested by another study. In the research, children’s drawings were first classified by adult human observers as either “good” (beautiful) or “bad” (ugly). Then pigeons were trained to peck at “good” drawings. After learning the discrimination task, they were presented with new images of “good” and “bad” children’s drawings to test if the animals could apply what they had learned. The result: The birds could also distinguish between the new “good” and “bad” paintings.
To find out how exactly the pigeons made this distinction, they were presented with paintings in reduced size, in grayscale, partially as mosaics, and partially obscured. The result: When the paintings were reduced or partially obscured, the animals could still recognize the images as “good” or “bad.” However, they couldn’t recognize grayscale or mosaic images as well.7
Pigeons Are Navigation Artists
Pigeons are true navigation artists, and many of them repeatedly return to their breeding grounds. They use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation. But the sun, their internal clock, and environmental sounds and smells also help them find their way back. With their laterally positioned eyes, they have good peripheral vision and possess twice as many nerve fibers in each optic nerve as humans.
People use their excellent navigation skills to organize pigeon racing. The birds are separated from their partners and released several hundred kilometers away. The birds then desperately fly back to their partners.
Pigeons and the Phenomenon of Crop Milk
While many people associate pigeons with scattered grains and breadcrumbs, there’s an astonishing feature behind raising their young: Pigeons don’t feed their young with grains. Instead, both pigeon mothers and fathers produce a nutrient-rich, milk-like substance in their crop–the so-called crop milk. The young birds drink this by sticking their beaks deep into the parents’ throats.
Contrary to their bad reputation, pigeons primarily feed on seeds, grains, legumes, and other plant components. Human food scraps, on the other hand, are not part of their natural diet.
The post Did You Know These 8 Fascinating Facts About Pigeons? appeared first on PETBOOK.
