the baby is almost grown - what now?

[Leah Matanky]

Hi everyone,
The baby I rescued on April 15 is doing great. I've cut back to one hand-feeding a day and he is eating seed on his own. I think he was 18 day approx. when I found him so that would make him 44 days or a month and a half now.

I still house him in a cage in the warm laundry room, and bring him into the yard when I am out gardening. He has flown down from the laundry room to the tree there or the ground. I am on the second level so that's quite a jump for him. He flies around a bit in the yard as well but is definitely scared to leave my general vicinity and gets nervous if I an not in his sight.

He has not seen / interacted with any other pigeons during the time I've had him, as there are none in my backyard.

He's quite tame.

I am totally confused about what to do next - I actually built a wooden box on the outside of the house near the laundry room thinking I would put him in there and let him go out into the world on his own and I could keep feeding him if he chooses to stay around. But he would much rather be inside the laundry room at this point (he tries to come back in any chance he gets) and I dont even know if it would be safe for him to just be out there unattended.

Can you guys please give me some advice -
I want him to survive and I want to do what's best for him.

thanks in advance,
Leah

[Charis]

There's no way a tame Pigeon will survive on it's own. It doesn't know how to find food and it doesn't understand the dangers of predators...it hasn't even seen another Pigeon. It isn't safe for him outside and honestly, I don't know if I would recommend ever letting this one go.

[Trees Gray]

Thank you for taking care of this bird.

I wouldn't let him fly by himself outside either, he is a sitting duck for a hawk/predator attack. Even if you are outside with him, that doesn't give him any more protection.

[altgirl35]

where r u located leah, maybe you can find someone in the area that raises them and he could hang out with them for awhile, i'll take him if your in the massachusetts area

[RodSD]

One bird is vulnerable to predators. Pigeons fly in groups and in companies. That way they can warn each other. Tame bird is also naive especially if they don't have experience with predators such as hawks. From my experience, very young birds wont run away even when hawk is about to take them. After certain maturity they will fly away because of built-in instinct. Now 2 possibilities at that moment: Either they survived the first attack and learned from experience or they die. Very young birds die from my experience. They can't out fly say a hawk. Your birds feel safe inside so it goes back. It doesn't has company to feel safe. I wont personally release only one bird. In fact, I always release my birds as a group. There is safety in numbers as they say.

I teach/allow my birds to forage on the ground and drink there, too. I do that just in case they gets lost somewhere. From experience it seems to have worked on my lost birds! Pigeon pro/racer usually don't allow their birds to forage on the ground or even touch the ground. Those birds may not have learned to survive.