Ask A Scientist© Biology Archive

name Amie
status other
grade other
location NM

Question - Every night, just before dusk, my boss and I watch a
flock of pigeons go through a ritual. They like to hang out at the gas
station across the street from our work. They have made the roof above
the pump islands their nesting area. At the beginning of dusk they will
all rise into the air at once and fly in a circular pattern above the gas
station. They go around two or three times, then only half of them
land. The other half will circle once more and then land. After that,
not a single pigeon will move off that roof and they've gone "to bed" for
the night. Our questions are, why do they perform this ritual and why
that pattern every night? Why do all the pigeons participate? My guess
was to make sure it is safe to nest there for the night and to ensure no
predators have moved in.
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Your guess is probably right. One basic thing to realize is that like many
birds, pigeons are flock birds. They have found that in bird psychology when
one bird does something like check for predators, the rest begin to do the
same thing. If one or two birds start preening, the rest will start to
preen. So by one bird checking for predators before it heads to its nest,
the rest will start to do the same thing also, making the whole thing seem
like a group ritual.

Grace Field
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