Nothing better demonstrates the axiom “familiarity breeds contempt” than the pigeon. Pigeons have remarkable navigation skills and are extremely powerful fliers. They perform courtship dances and mate for life (as much as any bird does, anyway). Both parents care for the chicks. They have an adaptation—”crop milk,” a substance that they produce and feed to their chicks, similar in concept (if not physiology) to how we mammals produce milk for our babies—that allows them to breed in habitats most birds could never hope to raise a family in. They thrive in urban environments, making them probably the first and most-often seen wild animal of many city-dwellers. They recognize each other as individuals. They are smarter than you think.
Concerning their usefulness to humans, pigeons are easily raised in captivity and edible. They have been bred into many domestic varieties with strange attributes, such as the propensity to roll over in mid-air. Charles Darwin studied domestic pigeons extensively, and they contributed to the formation of his theory of evolution by natural selection. They have been important message carriers in wartime; pigeons have received the Dickin Medal—like the Medal of Honor, but for animals—32 times, more than any other species (dogs are closing in with 31 medals).
And they come in sparkly colors with crazy eyes.
“Rats with wings,” people say—patently untrue: you can’t get plague from pigeons. “Dirty,” people call them; as if it isn’t our dirt they are wearing, and yet thriving anyhow.
Pigeons don’t need our admiration. But why not appreciate them? They are all around us—and they were certainly getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit today. Look at these dancing birds:
Those iridescent throats are something to behold.
He blinked.
The females always look scornful, but bird body language can be misleading. Birds often look at things with just one eye, so a female who appears to be looking away might actually be watching the display.
Walking away is a pretty universal sign, though.
At least one couple did mate while I was watching them, but I had the good taste not to take a photo of that. (Just kidding! I definitely tried to take a photo, but I was too slow.)
Not all the pigeons were looking for a traditional Valentines. Many just wanted to eat.
Go pigeons—eat that invasive plant!
Centuries of human breeding of strange pigeon varieties, and interbreeding of those pigeons with wild birds, has given us the variety of pigeon colors we see today. And not just colors: keep an eye out for pigeons with feathered feet, and other odd traits.
Would you like pigeons better if they all looked like this dainty white one?
I think she likes his green throat.
These interesting colors are only present in feral populations now because some male pigeons with human-influenced genes were very persuasive dancers, and managed to romance some wild females, while some human-bred females liked the dances of wild males.
Dancing is important.
Let’s end with this guy: the happiest pigeon you have ever seen.
Tough Little Birds 
And Picasso liked to paint them!
His seem to have a lot more tailfeathers (and be a lot more white) than your standard feral pigeon. I wonder if there was some specific domestic breed he was seeing?
Found a nice article on Picasso and pigeons, if anyone is interested: https://lisawallerrogers.com/tag/picasso-and-pigeons/
Thank you for this great essay on pigeons! Now I will start to really look at them.
Thanks for reading! They really do reward closer inspection, although I know how easy it is to get used to them and ignore them.
As always great commentary. I do neglect pigeons through familiarity yet I like sparrows and wrens, and always look out for magpies.
Great post and nice pictures! The small children at our school sometimes chase them. I will look more closely for their iridescent necks.
Ah, excellent point I forgot to mention: pigeons let little kids pretend to be big scary dinosaurs, and fly away in a gratifying simulation of terror!
I “rescued” my first pigeon about 3 years ago. I learnt a lot about them and i still do. I now have a dozen. They all have different personalities. Once you get to know them, they’re fascinating. That said, my question is : Do you think a pigeon that is not able to fly (because of a bad broken wig for example) can have a decent life? A happy life? I was told that birds fly (mainly to find food and) to escape predators. So as long as there’s no danger, a pigeon can be happy staying on the ground. But the more i observe my 2 disabled pigeons, the more i doubt it… (one of them is free to come and go in the garden or in the house, the other one stays in the pigeon house in the garden, no cages). Thanks a lot. (and excuse my English!)
I would imagine that a flightless pigeon could absolutely still have a happy life, as long as the flightlessness didn’t mean that they felt in danger, had trouble getting food, or had trouble socializing with companions. Pigeons spend much of their time on the ground anyway, as you say, so the adjustment would be much less than it would for, say, a swallow or a turkey vulture. The pigeon might keep trying to fly, just in case it ever started working again, but I don’t think that would necessarily mean it was unhappy.
Maybe contact the folks at Palomacy (http://www.pigeonrescue.org/) to see if they have advice about making your crippled pigeons happier? They would have more pigeon-specific knowledge than I do.
Thank you so much for your answer! I’m reassured now. Yes indeed one of them often tries to fly… He had a flying female for a while but she kind of left. I’m currently searching for a non-flying female to keep him company. Socializing is still to improve. Thanks a lot for the link, it’s awesome! I’m very happy with it as there’s very little resources (and vets) here in the South of France regarding pigeons welfare. Thanks!!!
Glad I could help! And glad that the pigeons have such a caring human. :-)