Urban Observation of the Week: Pigeons in the Park

In some communities people will feed the local birds, ensuring that they will have a great view of these birds. Oftentimes, pigeons will locate these feeding spots and aggregate. In this neighborhood in downtown Toronto, one person purposefully leaves food for the pigeons. Although feeding wildlife is not advisable and can lead to unintended consequences... Continue Reading →

Pigeon Feet in the City

If you've walked around a city with pigeons, you might have noticed that many of them are missing toes or have deformed feet. These foot deformities are common and may arise due to a number of different ailments including: chemicals that make surfaces sticky or apply an unpleasant odor; physical deterrents that are placed on... Continue Reading →

Evolution 2019: Evolution Takes Flight: Population Genetics of Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) in the Northeastern United States

As you may have guessed by now, urbanization changes the natural landscape and this can have consequences for the organisms that live in them. Feral pigeons, which had been domesticated thousands of years ago and transported globally by humans, are not immune to rapid urbanization impacts. Previous studies have shown that there can be inbreeding... Continue Reading →

IUWC 2019: Inclusive Urban Ecosystems

Following the plenary at IUWC 2019, this session focused on integrating urban ecology research with community engagement. The speakers here built on some of the ideas expressed by Chris Schell previously on this site. Pigeons & Passers-by Elizabeth Carlen, an editor for this blog and PhD student in the Biological Sciences department at Fordham University... Continue Reading →

Tools of the Trade: the Blood Glucose Monitor

One way that animals may adapt to urban environments is by expanding their diet to include anthropogenic food, as discussed in the earlier post “Is Anthropogenic Food Waste Driving the Evolution of Urban Animals?”. But how can we tell if urban animals are actually consuming enough anthropogenic food to change physiology and drive evolution? We... Continue Reading →

Tools of the Trade: the Net Gun

Collecting samples in urban environments can present some challenges (as Matt Combs describes in "The Good, The Bad, and The Smelly" and Jane Remfert describes in “Urban Residential Field Tip”). As someone working on pigeons in Northeastern cities, I’ve encountered problems while simply trying to collect my samples. Many ornithologists use mist nets, but these... Continue Reading →

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