Our Pigeon Data
Three groups of teachers went looking for pigeons on August 6, 1996. Two groups went to Homestead, Florida and a third group went to downtown Miami, Florida. Homestead is a small city located about 30 miles south of Miami. Here is what they found.
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Group One
We went to sites that we thought were attractive to pigeons, but we don't know if pigeons had been fed in those places before. We think that pigeons will come to places where they are fed regularly. We searched around fast food restaurants, malls, and neighborhoods. We didn't find any pigeons, but we did find 20 mourning doves, two woodpeckers, one bluejay, and one blackbird.
Group Two
Our group went to downtown Homestead. We found very few pigeons. We believe that the large number of falcons and hawks in the area cuts down on the number of pigeons. We did find two blue-bar and two pied-spash pigeons.
Group Three
Our group went searching for pigeons in the downtown
Miami area next to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. This area is
known for having pigeons because of the outside eating facilities. Our
first sighting was while we were in route to the museum, very close to the
courthouse. Two were Checkered, one was a Blue-bar. That made us very
eager to park the car and begin our search. Our second sighting was in
front of the Miami Dade Public Library. There is a small vending area
where people were sitting and eating and a few people were sleeping. There
were two pigeons located in this area. One was a Blue-bar the other was a
Pied-splash. The behavior that was exhibited by the pigeons was that they
pecked their food so hard they often threw it far away from where they were
standing. They were also very aggressive because the food was limited.
They did not make any sounds.
We then ventured out to the Government Center Park and there we saw ten
pigeons. Two were Checker pigeons, two Pied-splash pigeons, and eight were
Blue-bar pigeons. There was a great deal of food and each pigeon ate in
their own area without fighting. The people around them took no notice of
them, and the pigeons did the same concerning the people. We had a few
questions concerning the pigeons and their migration, because this time of
the year is very hot in South Florida.
On our walk back to the car we saw an additional Pied-splash pigeon flying
overhead. On our way out of downtown we saw three more pigeons in a large
parking lot. Two were Blue-bar and one was checkered.
- Blue-bar: 10
- Checker: 4
- Pied-splash: 4
- TOTAL: 18
Have you collected data about pigeons? Send us e-mail.
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