The pigeon, from it's heritage as a partner in our nation's (and our British allies; pre-dating us) armed forces, to more recent roles in surveillance and intelligence, to more urbane task-bearing notable uses, for the bird, such as in the messenger pigeon - all are fine, rich contexts for animal intelligence studies and modeling of psychological experiments in our hometowns and neighborhoods, internationally, whether the settings be urban, suburban, or rural in nature, whether the birds begin, as study subjects, as wild flocks, farmed, fancy, or domestic, the pigeon is a mark and a symbol of the pigeon fancier's pride and skill, in display arts depicting the successes of interaction and cooperation between species: us, being humans, and pigeons, which fulfill our ages-old fascination with flying; what could be learned from a betterment of our understanding and experiences with pigeons, being the core and fundamental basis of this learning series.
The blog article series starts off with an anecdotal experience and observations of behaviors in the local pigeon flocks that I work with and feed, on a daily basis (as best I can) - behaviors that recently (re)surfaced in some of the birds, in the context of that they could demonstrate that they could identify me, as well as modify their individual and collective behaviors, thereby influencing the socialization profile of the larger unit of the flock, based on embedded conditioning that had been established through my routine interactions with the birds, in feeding them.
The article I reference, to begin this study series, dates back nearly 50 years, in the Science publication:
Thomas R. Zentall, David E. Hogan
Pigeons Can Learn Identity or Difference, or Both
Taking a spin through Google Scholar, on a generic "pigeons" query, I came across this article. I drew relevance to it, from my day's interaction with one of the pigeon flocks, given that the behavior had been repeated, during recent visits with this particular flock, which resides at the Central Branch of the local Los Angeles Public Library, in downtown Los Angeles, CA, given that the birds affirmatively identified me - a "simple match," to use the paper's terminology (if, then relationship) and they demonstrated modified behaviors (some of them), which signalled that the flock's collective behaviors, contextually speaking, would, in turn, wind up being modified, as well, this signalling a shift in the birds' individual psychology and conditioning profiles, given that the same conditioning and routines be kept up, on a regular basis.
Anecdotally, yet perhaps relevant, given the context of the paper, was that an additional 2 dozen, or so, pigeons had arrived, with the onset of a regional heatwave, in the weather. One of the birds, "Snooker," a Pakistani High Flyer breed pigeon - a mostly white-feathered pigeon, with mottled artifacts of a standard pigeon's coloration, in plumage, at the crop and bust of the bird, which appears to be common fare amongst similar, pictured birds, on Facebook Groups that focus on this breed: the Pakistani High Flyer pigeon. Along with these two dozen, or so, new birds, is a moreso white-feathered pigeon, with asymmetrical black feather plumage, in a couple of streaks of the feathers on the bird.
(Updating)
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