Hello there! I am new to the boards and as expected I have never owned a pigeon before.
A little backstory on the bird in question, I was sitting under a pier with my SO when I saw something flopping around in the surf. Curious, I got up and walked over only to see it was a small pigeon drowning! Other people were staring and gawking as I ran fully clothed in to the ocean to get the poor fella out, and upon getting it out of the water I of course saw he was drenched to the bone. I couldn't leave him in the cold shaded sand under the pier because he would freeze to death and I couldn't put him in the sunny warm sand because it was being harassed by children, so I had to try and find a safe place for it to dry off. I work on the pier so I was always close to where I left it to dry, on a balcony in my line of sight only a little ways from where I found him. I thought I saw his parents coming to visit him but with closer inspection i realized it was a bunch of different adults harassing and bullying it, with one large male even attempting mounting with this youngster. Needless to say I knew his parents weren't around anymore, so I went over, scooped him up, and sat him on my lap to dry.
Finally he was dry and warm so I decided to try and release him, only so watch him fall with style and faceplant in to a wall. So I was stuck watching over a baby pigeon that couldn't even fly with no parents in sight. Hours passed, no adults came near him anymore and he stayed hunched up in a corner on the sidewalk. I came to the slow realization that I would need to care for it or it would die, as he was already very thin.
I wrapped him up in a towel and drove him home when I got off work, and set up a small animal carrier with some soaked dogfood and a water dish for him to nibble at.
Upon waking up I saw he had attempted eating the food and was producing solid green and white bowel movements so I knew he had something going inside him, no matter how little. I left for school and on the way back home that day I stopped off at a store and picked up some real pigeon food and enriched grit (large sand grains, oyster shell, multivitamins, etc.) and offered him some, which he immediately took to.
The bird is eating from my hand when offered food but is very nervous and flips out when I move near him. He laid down in my lap last night and preened on my shoulder, yet today he seems very hyped and nervous. His keel is very sharp so I know he is underfed and malnourished (it was even sharper when I found him, at least he's putting a little meat on his bones) so i have been working on getting him to eat as much as he can. I also have him out and give him free roam whenever I'm in the house (I don't say free fly because he can't do that yet.)
Is there anything I can do to make him more used to my presence, and how can I improve his living conditions?
I've had sun conures in the past so I know how to operate around birds, but a pigeon is certainly not a parrot!
He has also taken a keen interest in his reflection in the mirror, is it healthy to let him attempt interaction with it or could it possibly induce aggression like I've heard it can do with some parrots.
oh, and I've jokingly named him "Berlin Airlift" or "Berlinny" for short.
Thank you for your help with this matter, I'm doing the best I can to help this bird. I would really like to keep him if at all possible because I've seen how docile some can get, and I really miss having a bird in the house.
A little backstory on the bird in question, I was sitting under a pier with my SO when I saw something flopping around in the surf. Curious, I got up and walked over only to see it was a small pigeon drowning! Other people were staring and gawking as I ran fully clothed in to the ocean to get the poor fella out, and upon getting it out of the water I of course saw he was drenched to the bone. I couldn't leave him in the cold shaded sand under the pier because he would freeze to death and I couldn't put him in the sunny warm sand because it was being harassed by children, so I had to try and find a safe place for it to dry off. I work on the pier so I was always close to where I left it to dry, on a balcony in my line of sight only a little ways from where I found him. I thought I saw his parents coming to visit him but with closer inspection i realized it was a bunch of different adults harassing and bullying it, with one large male even attempting mounting with this youngster. Needless to say I knew his parents weren't around anymore, so I went over, scooped him up, and sat him on my lap to dry.
Finally he was dry and warm so I decided to try and release him, only so watch him fall with style and faceplant in to a wall. So I was stuck watching over a baby pigeon that couldn't even fly with no parents in sight. Hours passed, no adults came near him anymore and he stayed hunched up in a corner on the sidewalk. I came to the slow realization that I would need to care for it or it would die, as he was already very thin.
I wrapped him up in a towel and drove him home when I got off work, and set up a small animal carrier with some soaked dogfood and a water dish for him to nibble at.
Upon waking up I saw he had attempted eating the food and was producing solid green and white bowel movements so I knew he had something going inside him, no matter how little. I left for school and on the way back home that day I stopped off at a store and picked up some real pigeon food and enriched grit (large sand grains, oyster shell, multivitamins, etc.) and offered him some, which he immediately took to.
The bird is eating from my hand when offered food but is very nervous and flips out when I move near him. He laid down in my lap last night and preened on my shoulder, yet today he seems very hyped and nervous. His keel is very sharp so I know he is underfed and malnourished (it was even sharper when I found him, at least he's putting a little meat on his bones) so i have been working on getting him to eat as much as he can. I also have him out and give him free roam whenever I'm in the house (I don't say free fly because he can't do that yet.)
Is there anything I can do to make him more used to my presence, and how can I improve his living conditions?
I've had sun conures in the past so I know how to operate around birds, but a pigeon is certainly not a parrot!
He has also taken a keen interest in his reflection in the mirror, is it healthy to let him attempt interaction with it or could it possibly induce aggression like I've heard it can do with some parrots.
oh, and I've jokingly named him "Berlin Airlift" or "Berlinny" for short.
Thank you for your help with this matter, I'm doing the best I can to help this bird. I would really like to keep him if at all possible because I've seen how docile some can get, and I really miss having a bird in the house.
