found two fledglings

[emaleth]

hello!

today while walking the dogs i found two fledgling pigeons outside. it looks like someone decided to remove them from their balcony and left them in a laundry basket at the edge of the ravine.

i've been reading about baby pigeon care here and currently have them in a quiet warm box in my bathroom. i've fed them thawed (body temp) corn once and they accepted that quite well. they are both very strong and healthy, have no injuries, are nice and plump and have no mites.

i think they're around 25 days old and have almost all their flight feathers in, however they still have a lot of pinfeathers growing under their wings and down their backs.


this one i think is a girl. she's very curious and sassy and is a bit of a pain to feed.


i think this one is a boy. he's very timid but eats with hardly any fuss at all.

anyway, my question is, since they were born on a balcony and are used to that environment, would it be okay for me to set up a nest for them on my balcony rather than keeping them in a cage on my bedroom floor? i'll continue hand feeding them and will make sure they can eat on their own before releasing them with the local flock but don't want them to get too used to me.

[plamenh]

Inside is much safer. On the balcony other birds may scare them, atack them or just lure them to jump. They are not ready to be alone. This way or another they will get used to you as you provide food. Babies are generally tame and have no fears of anything. Parents teach them of dangers.

[emaleth]

thanks for the quick reply!
i shall set them up in my room then. how long do you think i'll have to keep them before they can be released?

[Hillybean]

They have to learn how to eat and drink on their own. They also need to be flying extremely well. They also need to be able to mingle with a flock in order to join it. That isn't instinct to them, they learn everything from mom and dad.

Where are you located??? We might a member close to you.


I think it is 28-35days for a pigeon to wean, and some time after that they learn how to fly. The are sexually mature by 6 months to 1yr old.

-Hilly

[Charis]

They are really adorable babies. They would have been goners with out you.

[plamenh]

You see, problem with baby birds is that they have no lessons with their parents. Most people think that once they grow, they can be released with ease just because they can fly well. There are other aspects of release. Bird must learn not only to fly, but also to search for food and how to socialize with other birds of their kind. When with parents, they watch and learn. With humans, well we are showing them wrong things.
Your bird will fly in a month, but that doesn’t mean that they will be ready. There is a way of preparing birds, called “soft release”.
You can read about it more, there are sources of information that I believe some of the members here will provide.
The idea behind it is to give birds time to adapt. You live them option to go out, feed them until they learn to find food and secure way back to your home.
Basically if you keep them in the house, you open window and put seeds on window shelf. They can go out, eat and come back in. As they grow more confident, they area of exploration wideness and they adapt to live outside.
Untill fully ready.

[emaleth]

i live in an apartment building in the east end of Toronto so unless i could let them live on my balcony and feed them there i'm not sure how i'd be able to do a soft release.

if there are any local members who would be willing to take them and help them prepare for life that would be wonderful! i'm really not set up to take on two pet pigeons, as sweet as they are.

they are accepting food from me and starting to settle in a bit.

[plamenh]

You can talk to Lindylou,
She has a lot experience with similar setup.