Laughing Doves
This needs a rewrite
Long ago, before time had a name, the first spinjitzu master forged the birds.
he gave Owls the strongest night vision he could, he also gave them giant wings which allows silent flying. he gave Eagles the sharpest eyes and the strongest talons. gave the Corvus and Parrots the best voice boxes. The best digestion system to the Voltures.
Once he reached the Columbidae much had ran out, thus they unfortunately didn’t receive much, they have eye night vision of a kitchen table, their wings short and loud, their voices harsh, unused to their full potential, brains tiny, their personalities explosive, stupid, yet kind.
Through their kindness and trust they became accustumed with humans, lived among their cities and built nests perched on the homes. with time they became more dependant on the man-made structures, lost the ability to build strong, withstanding nests. some even lost sense of fear. with this they became the symbol of peace for man-kind, a symbol that no matter what hardships we go through, kindness will prevail.
I’ve been seeing pigeons and doves out of my window for years, never managing to do anything but watch. i’ve seen pigeons and doves come and go, one couple laid an egg, i watched them dutifully care for it, only for it to disappear one day with no sign of any baby chicks. There’s been pigeons trying to mate, some trying to protect their territory, most memorable one is the “360° birb”, a pigeon who spun in circles for a good minute or two whenever some other bird sat by
A while ago, i had left a bag of rice out in the balcony with its head slightly open and in a few days i began hearing scritch scratchs from my window, with the sound coming from the balcony. When i went to investigate a pigeon stared at me with its red eye and a piece of rice held in the beak, taking into a flight within moments, once i stepped into the balcony a dove also flew off, sitting on the rooftop infront and just watching me, waiting for me to leave.
That gave me an idea.
I removed the bag of rice and instead poured out a first full of rice onto the ground of my balcony and some on the outside of my window. But soon waiting by my window trying to see if they come in began getting tiresome and seeming more like fruitless hoping.
But to my luck, the next morning at around 5am (it’s summer, 5am is bright enough) they woke me up from my slumber just making their laugh-like coo’s behind the curtain of my window
These days the laughing doves come and sit by my window, cooing and trying to get my attention, if they’re successful they get some rice and bread crumbs at the balcony
But the doves that know me seem to just not be there some days, instead there seem to be some newer doves who’ve maybe heard of this place and just came to check it out, when i go to pour food for them, they fly off instantly, sometimes returning in a few hours to eat the food
Another thing is that with the doves that know me, every time i’m in a new shirt they become apprehensive and careful, sometimes flying to the rooftop in front and waiting for me to leave to come eat food
The pigeons tho have never gotten used to my presence, they always check and double check the surroundings for any signs of human movement, if there isn’t any after a minute or two, they slowly move in, stepping loudly, munching loudly, without knowing i can see them through the window.
There are some doves who are more comfortable, after months of feeding them rice and bread, they feel safe enough to fly and sit by my window while i’m directly on the opposite side of it (they’re still afraid if i put my hand on the window, but hey it’s progress onto building trust)
I’m trying to get the doves to eat off my hand, it’s taking a lot of tries and a ton of failures, i haven’t succeeded in the month i’ve been trying, but seeing as these are hands-off birds, just a peck at my hand is all i’m aiming for.
Lately i’ve had no doves coming in, but there was a brave rock pigeon and a sparrow! the sparrow flew off every time i turned my head, and the pigeon loudly sat on my window and started furiously munching on rice.
I’m happy that they use and enjoy the water i put out every day, enjoy it to the point of throwing their bread crumbs in it and leaving me with mush to clean every day, but it’s just a minor set back to my goal of getting them to eat off my hand.
It still seems like doves are coming less and less, but instead i’m getting a lot of sparrows eating the bread and a few pigeons eating the rice.
there’s been one dove sitting who doesn’t seem interested in food, just relaxing in the shade, that’s is until i pop in to put down some food, he flies off at those times and only comes back after the pigeons have ate it all
The doves are back and currently with the 3 doves that come to me for food, it’s hard to tell, but their mate finding or mating ritual seems to be the male essentially trying to headbutt the female.
Today one of the doves came to me, seeming hungry, the dove bravely came and sat by my window, looking me directly in the eye, going to the balcony she sat in front of me on a wire, then when pouring food she hastily flew to where i was and started eating.
But while she was eating, on the other rooftop was another dove, a male dove, a dove who also knows me and isn’t afraid of coming close
this dove sat on the edge of the platform the female was eating food, he tucked his head into his body, fluffed up his chest feathers and RAN head first into the female, forcing her to fly off.
I thought he may want the food, but he flew off after the female, this rooftop, that window side, this side of the balcony, that balcony, that side of the balcony, until at one point the male stopped.
The female flew to here and continued to eat the food, keeping an eye out for the other doves location.
She eventually finished them, drank some water and flew to the closest rooftop.
The male followed.
He sat on a somewhat far edge of the rooftop, tucked his head, and began trying to headbutt the female, she flew off to the rooftop in front of me before he reached her, but the male followed.
multiple attempts at headbutting were made, none were successful, all to me looked more like bullying rather than a mating ritual of sorts.
Guess i’m known as food source to sparrows now as well.
They’ve been coming in, eating bread crumbs, pooping, leaving, as they do.
But my old friends the doves have made themselves scarce sadly, i see two love birds together maybe once or twice in the early mornings now.
But instead it seems there’s a young brave pigeon that i can try to befriend now, he comes to eat the rice i put next to my window, constantly vigilant, but unlike other pigeons he doesn’t immediately scatter when he sees a human, instead of rushes to get to the food, and runs if i make big sudden movements.
Along side them i’ve had some sparrows come and sit on the edges of the balcony chirping, altho they leave if i look at them, the act of sitting on the balcony when i’m there gives me hope to be able to have them eat from my hand some day.
Well my interactions with the birds has decreased, but one day as i woke up and went to put the daily food out, i was jumpscared by a young, small dove, his feathers not well preened and his reactions slower than others.
As i entered the balcony he looked at me from the ground and after holding eye contact for half a second, flew into my face and then away onto the closest rooftop.
Other than that i’ve seen more sparrows than pigeons and doves around, probably because of the heat in my area lately (Some days reaching 35 °C lately), But one of the most interesting birds around has to be the white-eared bulbul.
There seems to only be 2 of them around here, and when they do sit in the vicinity of my window they rarely sit on any horizontal platforms, instead they sit on the uneven vertical walls around, calling each other, and then continuing on their journey once they reach each other and sit on a wall for a break.
There seems to only be 2 of them around here, and when they do sit in the vicinity of my window they rarely sit on any horizontal platforms, instead they sit on the uneven vertical walls around, calling each other, and then continuing on their journey once they reach each other and sit on a wall for a break.
Been a while, over this time i’ve somehow gained the “trust” of 3 more pigeons, and every morning now i get 4 pigeons sitting on the roof top infront of my window just waiting
When i pour rice and bread, they wait until i’m gone to fly here and eat, but that has lead to alot of jumpscares for them, it’s really cute seeing a pigeon scramble their little feet trying to get to a place they can fly, one of them paniced hard once and was trying to walk mid-air while jumping off a ledge.
I also had a Red-billed chough land on my balcony yesterday, drank some water, made some sounds, sat there for a few hours and left.
Make that around 6-8 pigeons who sit far away waiting for me to pour food.
what a strange morning this was…
I also managed to snatch a well timed picture of a dove jumping off the ledge
The number of pigeons in the morning decreased to a normal 3-5 again.
But in other news, i have successfully pet a pigeon, it crashed into a window and was dazed, i took it in until he could fly again, after he seemed fine i initiated petting and after that let him go.
The doves hast laid eggs!
One of the egg hast hatched!
But the other egg seems too liquidy inside, nothing formed inside it
The baby is extremely silent, i’m checking up on him every morning and night to see if he’s safe, the mother and father seem to come here somewhat rarely
No…. i checked on the baby at night and the mother/father was there with it, but now in the morning the baby’s dead
