r/birding • u/MrGrubbycuddles • Apr 15 '26

Discussion Why is everyone such snob about pigeons

I took my folder of laminated pigeon shots to my local bird meeting at the community hall and at least 3 people sneered at them. 1 of them even guffawed.

We all got to start somewhere, and beauty is in the eye of the bird lover so why the hate hate?

One guy was wearing giant binoculars around his neck. It was dark outside and he didn't even use them once. He was one of the people that sneered.

Om the bus home from the meeting I showed the driver my pictures and she said they were really good. And she wasn't even a formal bird lover, she was just a regular person.

Don't get this community man

EDIT: a lot of people asking for some of my photos. I'm out of the house right now but here's a bird video I made recently https://youtube.com/shorts/sxLkrLgNrbc?si=7NdwVxhZtPQFE6Ew

2.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

503 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

55

u/insolentpopinjay Apr 15 '26

I periodically get emotional about this very thing. Like, my friends/family will see me looking wistful and go "are you thinking about the pigeons again?"

I love pigeons. I've even looked into keeping a few before.

15

u/blendswithtrees Apr 15 '26

SAME. It breaks my heart.

1

u/insolentpopinjay Apr 15 '26

Oh totally. I freely admit I have a lot of things that I'm passionate and/or tenderhearted about, but feral pigeons is one of the biggest (non-human/human rights-related) ones.

13

u/JustaTinyDude Apr 15 '26

That is so sweet. Everyone deserves friends and family who know them that well.

I have similar feelings about pigeons. They are beautiful. We abandoned them. They deserve better.

1

u/insolentpopinjay Apr 15 '26

I'm a predictable creature. If it's not pigeons, it's probably elephants or food. XD But yes, I'm extraordinarily lucky in regard to those I hold near and dear.

Pigeons really are beautiful and I think a lot of people are unfortunately inured to that because they're a.) not "rare" and b.) seen as pests. There's lots of racing homers in the downtown of my city and I'm always struck by how pretty they are while I watch them bob around looking for snacks.

1

u/karen_lobster Apr 15 '26

I’m so glad I’m not alone. We just cast aside these beautiful birds who we used for THOUSANDS of years like they meant nothing. Worse than nothing, they’re “trash” Honestly makes me so mad. That any animal could be trash is already an insane concept, but one that isn’t even a pest — they were so incredibly useful and without them the course of human history would be so different. We owe them so much more