“Hello again!” Pigeons can remember individual human faces Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
I was walking in the park with a friend recently, when they pointed at a pigeon and told me I was looking at their favourite bird. I was incredulous. Pigeons? Those winged vermin? My friend responded with this twisted logic: it makes a lot of sense for pigeons to be your favourite bird, because you get to enjoy them all the time.
Temporarily bemused, I wondered if anyone could really be so enamoured with pigeons. Turns out, the joke’s on me. When I spoke to other friends and colleagues, a surprising number of them had a lot of love for the humble pidge. One New Scientist colleague, who will remain nameless, confessed to having a secret pigeon tattoo. I even saw a news report about .
As I read around a little, I found that pigeons do have a lot to recommend them. Aside from their well-known homing abilities, they are unassumingly intelligent. They are no mammal, but do produce a kind of milk. They kiss each other, applaud themselves after sex and can (and can remember the ones who are mean to them). Add all that together and maybe, I thought, I could learn to love this seemingly ordinary bird after all. So, armed with my curiosity and a bag of oats, I set out to do just that.
A bit of bird-watching
I wanted to conduct my investigation with at least a whiff of scientific integrity, so I conceived of an “experiment”. First, I…
