Hello from Bangkok!

Fancyfeathers wrote:

I have the same situation here. Mikko has his original mate, Pij'ette, as well as his daughter Samantha as his 'secondary' mate (he stays pretty busy tending to two nests , but does a awesome job of it).
They all get along beautifully as long as Sam stays in her own basket.
Case in point:
I can just picture Pij'ette saying this and Sam definitely took heed of it . . .
"You get back to your own basket little missy."

Great shot, Cindy, really expressive! Both you and Siam Sam have the makings of the perfect pigeon soap opera...

An update: Things kept going along as above, with nothing much new to report. But word began spreading among the local pigeon population that there was a food buffet here, and more and more began showing up. Henry, who would let in anything with a skirt anyway, could not keep them all out, so more males began arriving. Fights started breaking out, and it was turning into a bit of a mess. There were so many that we thought building management might eventually have to have a word with us. Even this past Sunday, as I cleaned the balcony, a group of no less than six pigeons sat on the window frames nearby watching me, waiting for their chance to return.

So with the situation getting a little out of control, we decided we had to stop leaving food out for a while. That seems to have worked, as they've all largely disappeared. Henry still stops by for water, we still leave water out there, but no food out there for a few days. again, this is a neighborhood of abundant resources, so he hasn't been starving, we're sure.

After four days, I put some food out again last night. It's Saturday morning now; have not seen Henry around yet, but we hope he can keep it more to himself this time when he shows up and finds it again.

Hi Sam,
It's good to hear from you. for the update.
Word does get around quickly when there is a good food source available.

I'm glad Henry is doing well.

Well, we put the food back out. I even bought a small dog dish from which the food could be accessed easily but they couldn't turn over. But I'm afraid too many pidgees are once again descending. Not as many as before, but definitely too large a group.

And Henry is so funny! He spends a good part of the day chasing them away from his home. It's like something out of a Keystone Kops silent feature, the way he's continuously running around after them. But funny as it may be, we've removed the food again and maybe will try it again in a couple of weeks.

It looks like Henry and Little Pidgee are now a couple. They're always together. When she eats, he acts like a gentleman and tries to eat around her without disturbing her. They "did it" again yesterday afternoon (Wednesday afternoon). The funny thing is, Little Pidgee seems to be the pursuer, while Henry is very passive. She starts kissing him, then bends down for him. He won't even dance, just sort of goes "Well, okay," does it and that's that.

So Little Pidgee seems to have dumped Marty. Maybe she finally realized that was her son! Marty seems to have taken up with one of the Pretty Ones. It looked like he was standing guard over her while she was eating the other day.

And a cute new pidgee showed up on Monday. Black! A gray body but a black head and neck, and more oddly, black feet! It looks like he was burned in a fire. I don't mean really burned, but his coloring gives a charred impression. So he's Jack (as in Jack Black, or Black Jack ). Seems to be very young, maybe right out of the nest somewhere. All the other pigeons hate him and chase him away, but he's really cute, seems to like the balcony and is not very nervous with us. Unfortunately, Henry chases him away every time, and it's Henry's call. We know it's a male, because it seems to be only male pidgees chasing away only other male pidgees while the females simply look on.

Hi Sam,
It seems when a flock, large or small, finds out where the dining is great, they remember and remember well.

I'm glad to hear Henry is doing well and keeping up with his birdie patrol.
Jack sounds like quite the handsome pij.

As always, it's great to hear updates from your neck of the woods.

Henry and Little Pidgee are definitely a couple now. But I'm afraid we've had a tragedy today (Saturday). It looks as if Little Pidgee has lost her left eye after apparently getting into a fight with or attacked by a large pigeon we'd not seen before.

She was fine all day. I was out giving the balcony a good cleaning. Henry and Little Pidgee kept flying close, even landing on the concrete edge of the balcony occasionally, on a far side from me, but mostly they watched from the window frames. I finished close to 5pm, but that's pretty late for them, especially Henry, and they had left.

Less than an hour later, shortly before 6pm, Little Pidgee showed up in the dining-room window, chased by a large pigeon that looked like her or Marty, only bigger. I did not see this, but the wife was working at the table and saw it immediately. She said it was definitely not Marty, because no "socky feet," the feathers that some pigeons have that go all the way down onto the feet. This pigeon was acting aggressively, but left when he saw Little Pidgee was not going to respond. She was scrunched into the corner of the window frame. Or it could have been the large pigeon was spooked by my wife, but she has the impression it was the lack of a response from Little Pidgee that did it. And when the large pigeon left, the wife saw something was wrong with Little Pidgee's left eye.

I was downstairs at a nearby convenience store while all of this was going on, getting stuff for us to drink for dinner, and Little Pidgee and her attacker showed up just before I returned. I took a close look by the window. Little Pidgee did not try to flee, and yes, her left eye seemed gone! not bloody or oozing, just gone. A blank space. The wife and I went out onto the balcony and took a look. Our dining-room window is next to the balcony, and Little Pidgee was still on the far side. It was after 6pm by this time and getting close to dark. We thought maybe she came here on purpose, considering it a refuge, so we didn't want to scare her away. But she did not seem concerned by our attention.

As mentioned, I had cleaned the balcony today. I had already put out fresh water. We had removed the flower box earlier this week but, since Henry and Little Pidgee seemed to be a couple, planned to put it back out with fresh earth inside covering up what food was left. (They'd all made a real mess knocking the dirt out of the box getting at the food that was in there.) So we did that quickly, and Little Pidgee saw us. Shortly before it was completely dark, Little Pidgee flew over to the balcony. She seemed a bit disoriented. Probably in shock, as she had just lost her eye. Drank water but seemed to misgauge the bowl and stuck her entire face in. Drank a lot, though. Then walked right through the water, sort of staggering. Hung out between the water dish and the flower box and seemed to "droop." Didn't act startled at all when I went close, but as I reached out slowly through the door, she perked up and jumped up onto the edge of the flower box. Then she moved to the tree pot we call their "living room" and from there, to the balcony rail that Big Pidgee always used to sleep on. I sprinkled a little birdseed on the floor by the water dish while she was looking, so if she wants that, it's there.

And she's out there now. It's about 7:45pm as I type this. Again, she may have thought of this place as a shelter. Looked like she was sleeping earlier, but she opened her eye when I turned on the light to check on her. Didn't act to move, though. I think she needs some rest.

We've seen one-eyed pigeons in the city before, so we know this is not necessarily fatal. Little Pidgee still does not want to be touched and is active enough to flee. We'll let her sleep here tonight and see how she is in the morning. Henry possibly knows nothing of this now.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what we can do? I'm going to copy most of this post into a new thread asking advice.

I'm going to cross reference the link to Sam's new thread on Little Pidgee.
Little Pidgee has lost an eye

Thanks!

Siam Sam wrote:

Thanks!

You're most welcome.

It's turned out well. I posted this in the other thread:

Good news! Little Pidgee's eye is not gone. Sunday morning now, and she's back to normal. Got up at sunrise to look out. Her new man Henry was out there by the water. Then Little Pidgee popped her head up from just beneath the balcony door, where she'd apparently been eating the small pile of food I left out. Unlike last night, my presence startled her, like normal. She looked at me from both sides of her head, and her left eye was clearly open and functioning. Then she ran over to the edge of the balcony and flew away, followed by Henry. Phew!

I can only assume the attacker had been pecking at her eye, causing it to close up. And she must have been exhausted and in shock from the fight. But I saw the eye, albeit briefly, and it looks okay this morning. We expect her back later, and we can take another look. I put another little pile of food out there, and Henry is eating it now. And we saw them both together over on the mansion grounds this morning.

Thanks for the advice, but in this case, it looks like leaving her alone to rest was the right decision. She must have been scared out of her wits last night. I'm glad she thought of us as a safe haven.

What would have made that other pigeon attack her? Just from what we've seen on our balcony, it looks like males attack other males and leave the ladies alone. The wife says this pigeon was seriously angry at Little Pidgee.

Okay, so the crisis is definitely over. Tuesday morning now, 2-1/2 days after The Incident, and Little Pidgee's eye is definitely good. You'd never know anything happened. Odd that it closed up like that. It looked very scary, then okay the next morning.

But Henry and Little Pidgee are definitely a couple now. Almost always together. But still, when he's alone, and he sees the Girl, Henry goes into his mating dance. No dancing for Little Pidgee. Unrequited love perhaps?

And in all the excitement of Saturday night, I neglected to mention Jack, the black pidgee that suddenly appeared on Monday of last week. Saturday, he planted himself on a nearby window frame and stayed there all day long. I was afraid he might be sick, because he just would not move. Kept staring at our balcony. All day long. I went to the rail and waved my hand, and he did take a step or two back, but he remained on the frame. Finally he left, close to 5pm.

Jack is a starnge one. Does not spook very easily and will stand close to our door and stare in. Just stare. Last night (Monday night), he stayed here on the balcony! I was away in the afternoon, but the wife said when he first arrived, he just stood there and stared curiously at her. He does not act sick, but he's definitely a cool customer. No idea where he came from, just appeared. None of the other pidgees seems to like him. Black head, face and feet. Never saw one like him around here before.

We've taken to pouring a small pile of birdseed on the balcony floor outside our door occasionally, and that seems to help keep things orderly -- a little. Henry and Little Pidgee, along with Jack and the Girl, can finish them up quickly, but it's not a big advertisement for everyone in the neighborhood. And if I move very slowly while Henry and Little Pidgee are there, I can pour a little out without spooking them too badly, so they see it's me giving them food. I would love to have them eat out of my hand, but I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.

But Marty's been coming around, and he digs out the dirt in the flower box, looking for food that might be there. Dumps it everywhere! I guess it was a mistake to put food in there in the first place. I've had to bring the box back in and will replace it empty later. It's not like anyone actually uses it for sleeping now.

Also, Katie and Sammy have returned. Mates who are siblings from different batches of Big and Little Pidgee. Katie is actually male and used to fight Big Pidgee, his father. Now he and Henry fight, and I have to try to shoo Katie away. :(

Put the flower box back out empty, so if they want to nest in it, they can. The whole idea of the dirt was to make it a bit softer, but no one's nesting in it now anyway.

I put another little pile of food out this morning (Wednesday morning), and so many pidgess came flying. Henry does what he can to chase them away, but I see Katie and the male Pretty One even chasing Little Pidgee away! Can't have that. May have to cut back on food a bit again.

I think Henry is slowly learning that I'm trying to chase away the other males when they fight but not him. When a fight breaks out, I try to focus my attention on the fighters and not make any quick gestures towards Henry. He seems to understand. A little. Maybe. But he'll still fly away eventually if I get too close.

Also, food. I put out dove food, which is about the closest I can find to pigeon food, and they seem to like that. (They also like a brand of canary/finch food available here. Thais use the same word for doves and pigeons, they don't seem to distinguish between the two. Same with lemons and limes.) However, some of the seeds are green, and they always leave those. The other seeds are various shades of brown and black, and they'll pick those out. Then they'll finally eat the green ones if there are no others. I thought pidgees were color blind? Perhaps they pick up on the difference in shade. I wonder what it is about the taste of that particular seed.

How many Pigeons do you think come to the balcony to eat?

We count at least 9 now, including Henry and Little Pidgee.

Do you think it's difficult for them to find food there? Do people feed the wild birds like they do in the states with bird feeders?

Matilda wrote:

Do you htink it's difficult for them to find food there? Do people feed the wild birds like they do in the states with bird feeders?

If they are anything like our backyard flock, they get their 'in-between' meals elsewhere but come to our place for the main course and invite their friends to join them.

Matilda wrote:

Do you think it's difficult for them to find food there? Do people feed the wild birds like they do in the states with bird feeders?

Our neighborhood has abundant resources for birds. There is a big mansion next door to us, with extensive grounds and no cats or dogs. Our unit overlooks the place, and there is bird life of all types there. We even see Henry and some of the others of "ours" that are easily recognizable. So food is not a big problem. But what we put out is probably so tasty and easy to get at that they come a-runnin'.

In fact, we never put food out while Big Pidgee was alive. Just let him and Little Pidgee go eat over at the mansion while supplying water, which they seemed to appreciate. We started putting food out in August to try to persuade Little Pidgee to stick around and care for little Bob after Big Pidgee disappeared. Didn't work, as she ate the food and still rejected the squab. Poor Bob.

I've been putting out a small pile at night for the next morning, thinking Henry and Little Pidgee were the first ones here, but we were up at daybreak today (Saturday), and the whole gang was out there. Henry will chase them away if it's only a couple of them, but this is too overwhelming for him. And they fight and act like it's their place, not Henry's. No, we have to put a stop to this, but we'll keep leaving water out.

Henry came back alone a couple of times this morning, and I put out just a little for him. If I move real slowly, he won't spook now, and he sees I'm the one with the food.

Some people do feed wild pigeons here, but always rice. Thais think rice is a magic food for everything. I once knew an American lady here who tried to feed a stray cat some fish, and she was heartily laughed at by her neighbors, because everyone knows cats only eat rice! (Of course, I do see cats being fed other things too, but that attitude goes far to explaining why animals look so ratty over here.) But sometimes you see a flock of pigeons all ating out on a sidewalk, and you know someone has tossed some rice grains out. As far as bird feedres go, I've never seen any.

Thank you. That is really interesting. I thought that the bird feeders maybe more of a western thing. The feeders and differents seeds are huge here in the states. Entire stores dedicated to selling just that.
Rice is ok for Pigeons but I can't say I ever thought of feeding it to a cat.

My dog Lucy is crazy for rice (with beef bones in it)

So now we're waiting for Henry or Little Pidgee to show up, then we'll pour just a little out the door, showing them the bag. This seems to work, especially for Henry, as he will watch with interest and not fly away. So far, Little Pidgee flies away at some point, but not before she sees us pouring a little food out.

Strange, though, we've not seen Henry and Little P together very much the last few days. They were inseparable for a while. Ah, poor Little Pidgee. She had one Great Love, Big Pidgee, and he's gone. Quite a tragedy. She's been throwing herself at guys ever since.

It's always good to hear from you, Sam.
Appreciate the update.

Perhaps Henry and Little Pidgee have become more friends than mates.

Thanks.

Also, I don't think we've seen Jack (the black one) again since Tuesday morning after he stayed here Monday night.

I was cleaning up a little out on the balcony this morning (Monday morning) and changing the water. I must be under observation, because Henry and a couple of other pidgees came flying and waited over on the window frames in case this meant food.

After I finished, Henry came over, but I didn't want to put food out until the others were gone. Eventually they left, so I poured just a little out, managing not to spook Henry, who watched me do it from the edge of the balcony.

But the other two came back, and poor Henry spent half his time fighting them off. I mean really fighting. One was the female Pretty One and the other a new one, a near-Little Pidgee lookalike only much bigger. And he's male, because he and Henry became locked in combat. I helped Henry shoo them away. Then Katie, who is male, appeared and fought with Henry. Poor Henry. That's all the food that's going out today.

Henry seems to understand I'm helping him chase the others away. Sometimes he gets scared and flies away too, but often I can concentrate my attention in such a way that the others leave while Henry stays, watching me.

The new technique of pouring just a little out the door at a time has worked. We no longer have a big flock crowding the balcony. The situation is much more low key.

And now Henry seems to wait around every morning for snack time. This time of year, the sun does not shine directly through these windows, so we can leave those curtains open when we go to bed, and thus there is no scaring him in the morning by opening them. And when he sees me, he gets a little excited. I go get the food bag, show it to him and slowly, very slowly, open the door and pour some out onto the floor. He stays over on the rails and acts nervous. Makes these little grunting sounds that seem to indicate terror. But if I'm careful, he won't fly away. Then he comes and eats after I've come back in.

And Henry does not seem to be with Little Pidgee any longer. We've only seen her once or twice this past week. (Seemed to have a little diarrhea, too. Hope she's okay.) He keeps cooing in the morning and is now clearly interested in the female Pretty One. (The male Pretty One he still fights off.) And she seems inordinately interested in the inside of our place; keeps staring and staring inside, right up close at the window.

But Henry did keep trying to mount the girl when she came by to eat yesterday (Friday). He was unsuccesful, as she kept running away. It was hilarious!

But poor Little Pidgee. Again, her Great Love died, and she seems to just be throwing herself at different men now.