The Saga of the Pigeon

Saturday night, late, the phone rang, starting an avian adventure.

I am apparently known as the bird lady in our condo, so when a beautiful banded pigeon was found in the front yard a neighbor called me. The bird had no interest in flying away and was almost caught by a curious BIG dog.

It is a lovely bird and has a bright green band on its right leg that only seems to say "1 11".

My brother is a former vet and suggested that I let it rest for the night with plenty of food and water and try to release it in the morning.

Sunday morning I tried to release the pigeon, but it does not seem to want to leave. I took a picture of it standing in one of my flower boxes, enjoying the view.

There does seem to be an injury at the vent. Fred said to check if she is egg bound. Did not seem to be.

The band is the sort that a breeder would use to identify his own birds, not a registration. No help there. I had reached someone from the racing pigeon assoc. but because it was not a racer, he could offer no assistance.

On Monday the pigeon was released. We kept it one more day for rest and recuperation.

Before going to work we put the cage and a dish of food in the bathtub and the bird on the window sill. We watched for a while while it looked out the open window. We closed the door and let it decide. When we came home from work, it had "flown the coop" so to say.


It was a strong flyer and had a few days of gentle care.

The sweet bird cheered our world for a few days and it left in better shape than it arrived.