When I first moved to Albuquerque in 1991, Columbidae Columba, the feral pigeon, was relatively rare throughout most of the city. It could be found downtown, but not anywhere else, as far as I can remember. Now the city is covered with these birds, and they have spread out to anywhere in the state with a fairly dense population of humans.
As you probably know, I consider them one of the three illegal aliens of the bird kingdom (the other two are House sparrows and European starlings). I don't even like them, and the picture above is the first picture I ever took of one. I took this picture two weeks ago.
Now Albuquerque wants to criminalize their feeding. I can understand why. Nobody likes bird poop, and pigeons leave a lot of it everywhere.
But there's a huge opportunity here! Other cities in recent years have seen a return of Peregrine falcons and Red-Tailed hawks. These birds have returned because the cities have everything they need -- skyscrapers and telephone poles to nest on, and pigeons to eat. Pigeons have been living with humans for thousands of years. They're not going to go away on their own, and they eat garbage. We can't starve them out. But if the City of Albuquerque were to actively pursue ways to get hawks to come to the city, the pigeon population would drop to something manageable.
I've seen how hawks manage the Mourning dove population at my own house (having seen the cycle described below play out three times), and I'm sure they would manage pigeons the same way. A flock grows to 40 or 50 birds, and starts to feel safe in its territory. A hawk moves in, and over the course of a few months kills off about 90% of the flock. Only the most vigilant birds survive. When it gets hard to catch food, the hawk moves on to the next flock. Bird behavior changes, too. Instead of being everywhere, they become more wary. Less likely to be caught out in the open where they can be killed by hawks. It's likely that pigeon eating and pooping patterns would change to something less annoying for those who don't much care for pigeons. As the hawk is off decimating other flocks, the flock already decimated begins to grow again. And the cycle starts over.
How many pigeons are there in Albuquerque-5000? If you starve 5,000 pigeons, you'll end up with 4,800 ravenous, annoying pigeons. But if hawks do the management work, the population should be reduced by 75-90%, depending on where you're standing when you do the count. The few left would be scattered out over the whole city in small flocks.
Unlike New York City, which had to
intervene to successfully reintegrate Peregrine falcons, hawks live
up to the very edge of Albuquerque and occasionally hunt in city limits already. So instead of punishing old men on park benches, why not just make Albuquerque bird friendly? There are things we can do to get hawks to move into the city. Replacing the use of harsh chlorine in city fountains with mechanical filtration systems would be a good action to take. Providing hawk-friendly habitat (especially downtown) would be another. If we put our mind to it, we could make Albuquerque look like heaven to a pair of young hawks trying to find a place to raise their chicks.
I used to believe that birds need pristine habitat to survive. But although pristine habitat is ideal, many bird species can coexist in the city with humans if they have what they need. If they have everything they need, they won't know that they're not
in pristine habitat. All we have to do is make sure that the other needs of predatory birds are provided, and they will happily manage our pigeon flocks for us.
Their food is already here.
If there is a group of people in Albuquerque dedicated to making Albuquerque bird-friendly, please let me know about them. I'd like to join.
