Raising A Baby Pigeon

Raising A Baby Pigeon

When I was about 10 years old, my mother asked for help raising a baby pigeon. The bird had fallen from its nest and was in our backyard. My mother placed the bird in a shoe box and asked me to feed it with an eye dropper every two hours. The pigeon was very young and its eyes were not open.

One day I went to school and forgot to prepare the pigeon's meal before leaving. When I came home, the pigeon was dead. Feeling guilty and sad, I told my father what happened. He said, "It's okay, you did your best." Then he asked me to help him bury the bird in our backyard.

I still remember how heavy the bird felt as we dug a hole and buried it together. By giving me this responsibility, my father taught me about love and loss at an early age. My mother also let me take care of my own fish when I was young. Both of them have always encouraged me to be curious and explore things on my own.

Pigeons are pretty cool, but they're not exactly the most glamorous of birds. They're often regarded as dirty, pesky vermin that only exist to shit on statues and eat french fries off the ground. Actually they're pretty fascinating creatures, and I'd like to share with you a brief look at their life cycle in the wild, and raise a baby pigeon at the same time (sort of).

A baby pigeon is born blind, and for the first few days of its life it is completely helpless. It is extremely vulnerable to cold, and needs to be kept warm at all times, especially when it's very young. Pigeons hatch out with fluffy down already covering their bodies; this down insulates the bird so that it can keep itself warm when it's older.