Non-homeing pigeons and finding home

Just out of curiosity, what would likely happen if my Rochester, regular feral pigeon, raised with me since he was a month old (now 7 or 8 months old), got out of the house? I know that pigeons seem to be kind of home bodies, unless you take them somewhere to release them to go home. I get the sense that they have a home base and they don't stray far from that, especially if there's a mate and yum-yums to go back to!

I'm just wondering what the predictable behavior of my pigeon would be if he were to get out accidentally or if I could allow him out and he not fly away, but just up and around and back down. I tried to catch a fancy pigeon this past winter that roosted on this guy's roof and never strayed far from where he'd always lived in a nearby aviary that he was released from, irresponsibly, by the owner who decided to get out of keeping pigeons. Could I probably train Rocky to fly along with me in the neighborhood as I rode my bike or at least be out in the back yard with me and come in when he needed to? He's pretty attached to me and he has his little friend, Mr. Enya, the ringneck dove that he has a nest with.

He loves traveling in the car when I go around town. I carry him out in his little cage and as soon as we're in the truck I let him out and he sits on the seat back the whole time, makes no attempt to get out at stops and patiently waits for my return.

What do you more experienced folk think of my chances of having an indoor-outdoor pigeon?

Stacey

[cyro51]

Hi Stacey,

I released one of my first rescues from my aviary when he had a nest and eggs to return to. I had found him as a squab and expected him to come straight home. I never saw him again and will never know whether he survived or got caught by a predator.

A couple of weeks ago another one that I found as a badly injured squab last year escaped from the aviary. He also had a hen and eggs and he disappeared for three days, before I found him trying to get back to his wife.

They do stick fairly close to home, although I believe they forage within a 10 mile radius, but if they have not been raised to be streetwise they can be very vulnerable to predators and to traffic.

Cynthia

[dano7]

I have an in out bird but only one and many failures as noted above. If you decide to take a chance you need a good entrance point into your house and the bird learns this first. Then you can walk the bird to nearby points. If he wants to stay he will know the way home from short distances. If you get this far then find a smallish feral flock close by. Drive him over there and feed the flock with your bird. He will be scared but he will soon try to mingle. At some point he will fly with the flock instead of to your head and then you can go home and pray. If he comes back you have a good chance. He can learn hawk beating techniques. I keep him home during hawk season though (roughly September to March). If you do this you need to medicate for canker, worms, and external parasites at least.

[Trees Gray]

It is hard to be able to judge whether these birds have the "homing instinct"

The way you described your training sounds a little like how we train our homing pigeon babies. The older the bird is the less likely he will home. With a newby you have a better chance, cause your dealing with a clean slate. Nothing imprinted, yet.

We usually start with the point of entrance and exit, as you did, Dano. We familiarize the young birds by putting them in a training cage during the day, that lets them freely go in thru the bob trap and back out.The training cage slides on to the launch pad where the bob trap is. After that you let them out thru the bob trap (no training cage)and familiarize them with the coop, and surroundings. Next they start flying a little and then they all take off. once they are familiarized with their surroundings, and have flown for several weeks and come back and are flying as a team then you start taking them on training tossess, further from home.

We fly in groups, so it easier to train them together, sort of like school for pigeons, as pigeons are social creatures. They also watch out for each other and alert each other of hawk coming.

Understanding the ferals, the way you do, Dano, takes a lot of observation and patience.

Treesa

[dano7]

You are blessed to have the set up to give your birds a top notch introduction to surviving free flight, Treesa, and you deserve it from they way you care for your birds.

Since I have a second story room with a trap built into a window screen, new birds have to go out on the neighbors roof and figure it out before the hawks figure them out--I have no flock for guidance either. I should have mentioned that my homing feral was raised here from 10 days old, and other wilders I have had would not come back--it's such a longshot that it is not advisable.

I think I will not intentionally let him out. I'm collecting large screen sections that I'll attach to either light weight wood I have in the garage or PVC pipe to make a frame and create sort of a "tent" that I can sit in in the back yard with them and they can't fly away. I so enjoy sitting in the yard on a blanket with my dog, a couple of cats, the neighbor dog, whoever else feels like joining me, I just thought it'd be nice to share this experience with Rocky and Mr. Enya too. I can take my two flightless PMV pigeons out there now, and they love it!

I'm thinking about building this tent deal so that I can use it for the next month or so in my garage and keep the two PMV pigeons that have mated since they've been in my "hospital" and the female is getting more able to fly now. She got up on the window sill perch today about 4 feet off the ground! I would like to re-introduce them to the outdoors safely before totally releasing them, and I don't have an outdoor aviary. But I could build this in my garage, closing the door at night to keep them safe from predators and opening the door during the day to let in light and be "outside" for them. I'm home pretty much all day anyway. I don't want to confine them to a small cage outside when Phoenix is trying to regain her flight capacity. And I know they'll lay more eggs in a week or so, which I want to keep safe from predators as well.

I'm getting the screens for free from a local window installer who's saving used ones for me, and I already have a large collection of free wood in my garage from other scavaging activities.

It's still kind of cold here at night. I decided to put the large cage with the three movie star juvenile pigeons in it, into the garage for the night. They'd probably be fine, but I'm such a worry-wort.

Anyway,
Thanks for talking me out of free-flight for Rocky!
Stacey