[birding] Re: Band-tailed Pigeons

[Lisa Millbank]

My dad and I used to enjoy picking blackcap raspberries (Rubus leucodermis) in the Siskiyou Mtns. when I was growing up in Medford.  The arching canes lined the gravel roads, wherever the sun shone through the sunny, open pine forests or where the road passed through an old clearcut.  I didn't know a lot about birds then, but I was curious whose feathers were always stuck in the thorns of the blackcap brambles, and who was leaving seedy poo all over the place.  The receptacles of the little raspberries looked fresh, like the berries had been picked that morning.  I guessed the mystery bird might be some kind of grouse.  But the feathers were always on top of the brambles, so it didn't make a lot of sense for ground-dwelling birds.

I think we usually went picking in the afternoon, but I remember one time when my dad managed to get me out of bed early (a truly heroic feat).  The morning was cool and the brambles were still shining with dew.  Rounding every corner of the steep gravel roads, we startled flock after flock of Band-tailed Pigeons who were having their blackcap breakfast.  I hadn't realized there were big wild pigeons in the forest, and I was amazed by their iridescent napes.  Once I became more familiar with them, I always liked watching the pigeons gulping down the abundant crops of madrone berries, manzanita berries, and blue elderberries.

Now I don't get to see them up close very often, but I like to watch their strong flight, straight and fast over our neighborhood toward the forests along the rivers, like travelers on an aerial freeway.  I don't know what kinds of wild foods they're finding this time of year, I suppose they might eat buds and flowers, but they seem to like ash seeds in the fall.

Lisa
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: howard bruner 
  To: birding at midvalleybirding.org 
  Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 10:42 AM
  Subject: [birding] Those remarkable forest pigeons


  Hi Chris
   
  I second Joel's comment - please send your band-tailed pigeons to me.  I was involved in research on basic ecology of the band-tail in the early 90's here in western Oregon and came away with a deep appreciation for a remarkable creature.  Let me share a couple findings with you.  
   
  The breeding season is May through Sept. and multiple nesting attempts are fairly common.  The nest is a flimsy stack of small twigs that one can see daylight through.  The female lays one egg - more uncommonly 2.  Mortality for eggs, squabs, and fledged young is high with predation from the usual closed-canopy suspects - hawks, accipiters, jays, owls, ravens, raccons, squirrels, snakes, and felines.  
   
  Mortality of adults results from encounters with all of the above (except ravens, jays, and squirrels) as well as human hunters.  A great book on the harvest and decimation of the historic flocks is: 
   
  Mathewson, Worth. 2005. Band-Tailed Pigeons: Wilderness Bird at Risk.
   
  For me that summer in the Coast Range is a glad memory hallmarked with golden dawns in dripping fog forests seeking to uncover the secrets of an iridescent migrant that seemed more appropiate to the jungled tropics than the rain-forested PNW.  We learned that we could set our watches to the invariant timing of switch of the sexes for uninterrupted brooding of the eggs.  The Male had the day shift and relieved the female at 10:00 AM each morning and the female came back at 5:00 PM for the night shift.  To watch from 30 meters below as they interacted with (yep you guessed it - cooing - among other pigeon murmuring and chuckling) on a thin branch in the swaying canopy was to discover a forest treasure unknown to most.  The reliance on supplemental minerals from ground and water sources in order to fortify the glandular 'milk' fed to squabs seemed a jump from Aves to Mammalia.
   
  When the red elderberry reached a certain density and abundance recognized as a critical threshold by discerning pigeon gormands and the berries were the color of a fire engine - then we would find the remnant gatherings of a wild and social denizen of the greatest coniferous forest on this earth - and realize we were privey to a spectacle ancient and glorious.
   
  H  
   
   


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