Hasdrubal the Pigeon

[Jubal]

So I woke up this morning and there was a fledgling pigeon outside my back door. I've tried offering it food and water to unclear levels of avail. I've also named it Hasdrubal.

This is Hasdrubal:



Hasdrubal is clearly a fledgling - that's what all those fluff feathers around the head are.

Next step is to try and move Hasdrubal up onto the wall. This will mean the parents are better able to find their fledgling and hopefully will start taking parental responsibility... if I still have a pigeon here overnight I guess I have to start thinking about temporary nest construction. I'm reasonably hopeful that there shouldn't be predator issues here, I've never seen foxes this deep into Vienna and the cats are mostly indoor ones (though I did once see a feral polecat in 8th district) and the area where I am is quite closed off. Crows are more of a worry but rarely come down here.

Wish me luck in my adventures as a temporary bird parent!

[Glaurung]

Good luck!

Presumably Hasdrubal can sort of fly - well enough to land without obvious injury after leaving the nest, but not well enough to get airborne again in a rather restricted ground-level space? Also you mentioned parental responsibility: do pigeon fledglings often leave the nest before becoming fully independent?

And a historical question: do you have any particular Hasdrubal in mind?

[Jubal]

I'm not sure, I've not really seen Hasdrubal try to fly. I think many bird fledglings get quite a bit of parental attention after leaving the nest, I don't know about pigeons specifically but it's true of most species I do know about. They need to learn to get food etc somehow of course, and many if not most fledge before they can fly properly and thus still need feeding by parents who can access food. I just hope Hasdrubal has got to the stage of being able to eat without parental input: I really do not want to have to learn how to feed a scared baby pigeon manually.

And no, I didn't have any particular Hasdrubal in mind, the name just sort of turned up!



General update: Hasdrubal is still outside, looks fairly bright-eyed and not sick or weak as far as I can tell which is good. I've put a box out in case shelter is wanted overnight and have still left the food out. I tried picking it up at one point to see if putting it higher up helped attract parental attention, but it was having none of it.

I don't think there should be any serious danger: I obviously can't be absolutely certain that there are no predators in the area, but I don't think there are many. Crows are probably the biggest threat, but they rarely land down inside these deep inner city blocks. Bigger prey birds would be even less likely to come into an enclosed space like this, and it being a block probably means few routes for foxes or feral cats/polecats (of which there are very very few if any in central Vienna in the first place). So that just leaves rats as a threat, and again as far as I know we don't have any. I think rats might think twice before attacking a young pigeon in any case: they could take it, but it could probably hurt them.

Amusingly, I went out to check my plants at one point and Hasdrubal scooted, first away, then when I got to the other end of the decking back in the reverse direction... and into the door, going for a brief exploration of my flat. I had to corner it in the shoe area, and it started making lots of scared peeping noises - fortunately I had a brainwave, turned my bucket on one side, it ran into it, and I evicted it in that.



More pictures:

Mugshot with much baby fluff:




A small pigeon goes exploring:




By the door:




And in the eviction bucket:

[Ierne]

This is adorable, really put a smile on my face. Good luck with your impromptu pigeon rearing!

[Jubal]

Well, Hasdrubal spent yesterday pottering around the decking - didn't use the box I put out for overnight use, just sat under the table, but some of the seed I put out duly vanished so that's good. I wasn't particularly relishing any prospect of having to learn how hand-feeding a pigeon works! I had lunch out there yesterday (today the weather was meh until early afternoon). Generally I've been trying to keep out of its way and minimise intervention - as charismatic as I've been finding it, I think my role here is "help it head out into the wild" not "become a pet owner".





Then this morning I got up to find Hasdrubal on the wall around my decking, and after a bit it flapped up and went onto the roof of the bins area, which is great to see. Flight abilities unlocked! It's still there - last I went out it was sitting on the fencing, looking over the decking - so I suspect it'll stay around a short while yet. It didn't look fully confident with flying, but if it's got enough lift to get up to the bins roof then that's probably a bit safer than my decking is.

Unfortunately some of my cucumber plants were broken this morning and I strongly suspect this is because Hasdrubal sat on them - it's a good thing I ended up with such a large surplus. The pigeon has also been nibbling at my thyme a bit, which is cute but I'm glad it doesn't have a more voracious plant appetite!

Anyway, all good news so far It'll be harder to keep track of Hasdrubal now it can fly and get to lots of places I can't see, but I'll report further sightings if there are any, and I suspect there will be, for another couple of days at least.




EDIT: Also, have a lil video

[HanSolo]

My interpretation of the video: "What is neck? Is this neck? How do neck? Oooo something shiney!"


(also looking forward to the Hasdrubal emoji)

[Jubal]

Not seen Hasdrubal for a couple of days now, so I think that's the end of this little saga. Funny being a part of a story that you know you'll never know the end of, but I suppose life is always like that a bit. I hope it's found somewhere to be and has all the best of luck in future, anyway. And I at least have a good few pictures to remember it by

[The Seamstress]

Hasdrubal!! Adorable I wonder what became of it, I too hope it lives/lived a happy pigeon life.

[Jubal]

It may well have been one of the pigeons that regularly uses my bird-feeder in subsequent years: I'm not sure what the average lifespan of a pigeon is but given this was in 2020 I suspect it'll have had a pretty full pigeon life by now!

[The Seamstress]

Did a bit of googling and it seems to be anywhere between 2-6 years on average for wild pigeons, so Hasdrubal could actually still be around! They can live a lot longer as pets (with proper care), apparently.

[Jubal]

Yeah - probably not but it's not impossible. I do get occasional pigeons on my birdfeeder which are probably Hasdrubal relatives. In the last couple of winters I've had collared doves as well which I like.