How did the pigeon's egg disappear? Can they carry them out from the nest?

We have 3 balconies in our apartment. One attached to my bedroom, another attached to the living room and the other, attached to the kitchen.
About 4 days back, a pigeon nested in the balcony attached to the Living Room, which we don't really use in the summer, as we live on the 13th Floor and it gets very hot.

So this pigeon, nested in a plant pot and had laid 2 eggs initially.



2 days later, another pigeon laid 2 eggs in the balcony attached to our kitchen. My mom always throws the eggs away from the kitchen's balcony because she keeps her potted plants there and needs to go there every day, and the pigeons make a mess.
So she would have thrown those 2 eggs away. Therefore I picked those eggs up, and placed them in the nest of the pigeon in the living room's balcony. So there were 4 eggs, and the pigeon came back and sat on all 4 of them.

But today I went to check up on the mom to feed her. When she left her nest, I saw that there were only 3 eggs. One of them is gone.



The egg in the middle belongs to the egg from the other pigeon. So the other egg laid by the other pigeon is missing. I know that because those 2 eggs had these dropping marks on them, while this pigeon's eggs have been clean.

We do NOT have Crows or Hawks in our area, and certainly no raccoons or opossums in this country.
And I don't think anyone else would have thrown an egg away from my family.

There was no broken shell or any trace of it being destroyed in the nest.

What could have happened?

Oh, and what kind of pigeon is this?

I would like to tame one of the babies and I have heard that I can interact with the babies after they are a week old?

And how should I tame one of them? I'd like for one of the baby pigeons to stay with me.

Does anyone know what kind of pigeon this one is?

I'd say that's one of your standard Rock Pigeons.

As for what happened to the egg, we did have one pigeon remove what turned out to be an unfertilized egg one time. It took too long to hatch, so we suspected something was wrong. Then one time we saw it was outside the nest. Thinking the mother had gotten it stuck onto her foot with feces or something, we put it back. But then the wife saw her fly it out again! Was definitely trying to ditch it. I'm not sure how she managed to attach herself to the egg to get it to go with her.

As for taming one, we never had much luck with that, but people have done it.

As Sam has stated your visitor is a 'rock pigeon', aka, a common pigeon or feral pigeon. This one is called a 'blue bar'.
And a very handsome one as well.

The parent may have knocked the egg out of the nest and perhaps it rolled off the balcony.

Unless there is a problem, e.g. illness or injury, that requires a human's intervention, I wouldn't encourage taking a healthy feral and trying to tame it. JMO

Oh well I guess something went wrong and one of the eggs hatched today. It hatched from the egg that I stole from the other pigeon. But I'm pretty sure that egg wasn't in the balcony a week ago. :S



And I'm sure the foster mom laid her eggs about 4 days back too. So now what happens?

Where are the parents?

AZWhitefeather wrote:

Where are the parents?

The mother leaves the nest when I go to check up on her. She comes back in 5 minutes.

So I assume the other 2 eggs will be hatching after a week or more...so what should I do now?
This is not even her baby, and I son't know if that will cause any problems or not.

Has the mother interacted with the squab yet at all? Fed it?

Hi Rashu,

It takes about 17 days for a pigeon egg to hatch, so somehow the eggs on the kitchen balcony must have been there longer. If the second of the other two was laid 4 days ago, these should hatch in 13 days.
As for the missing egg, there must have been something wrong with it and one of the parents will have thrown it out of the nest.

I don't know if it is possible for the parents to feed 3 babies, as the production of 'crop milk' (a secretion produced in the parents' crop) is timed in relation to the development of the eggs, it's in limited supply, and only lasts for 12 days after the eggs hatch -- after that they start regurgitating seeds for the youngsters. So unfortunately, it's possible that this first baby won't make it unless it's hand reared, but that takes a lot of time and experience to do, as well as an incubator and special equipment.

If you want to make friends with young pigeons, your best bet is make friends with the parents by giving them food. That way, as the babies grow they won't be scared of you, and may even come and eat out of your hand. And you will have the best of both worlds: beautiful birds that are your friends, but at the same time are free to fly, learn survival skills and will one day get a mate -- which they will probably bring home for you to meet!

See how friendly they can be, and still be free...

That is a great picture, Teresa.
The 'curious' look the one is giving is priceless.

How are your pigeons and eggs doing, Rashu?