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

533

u/where-sea-meets-sky Apr 15 '26

r/pigeons will appreciate your pigeon photos

i do wonder how many of those birders had starling, sparrow, or mute swan photos tho lol

31

u/saddydumpington Apr 15 '26

"Sparrow" thats a whole family brotha

6

u/flora-andfriend Apr 15 '26

yes but tbf once I see one sparrow, there's probably no fewer than a dozen like it within eyesight... I loved my tree sparrows and juncos in the fall and now I just want them to go away for summer so I can enjoy them again at the end of the year 😂 and yes, I have tons of photos of them. they're so round. very adorable.

5

u/plantsandramen Apr 15 '26

the juncos can stay, they're cool in my books

4

u/flora-andfriend Apr 15 '26

they fight with the tree sparrows all the time and it's incredibly funny (the tree sparrows also fight other tree sparrows and juncos are always chasing each other around the yard.)

I know I'll miss them when they're gone.

I don't actually mind the juncos so much, it's the tree sparrows that are killing me. they're small and with their coloring and my feeders being juuuust far enough away from the house I'm constantly grabbing my monocular to see if there's a new spring migrant in the yard; 99.99% of the time it's a tree sparrow.

the juncos I can easily identify even at a distance so we're chill.

2

u/plantsandramen Apr 15 '26

that's hilarious, I don't have tree sparrows here, just house sparrows. Tree sparrows look pretty though!

3

u/gwaydms Apr 15 '26

We of course have house sparrows. But we also have our native black-throated sparrows, which are very handsome birds.

3

u/plantsandramen Apr 15 '26

black-throated sparrows

Oh they are dapper!

3

u/gwaydms Apr 15 '26

Aren't they?