On April 20, on the south coast of Timor-Leste, Jafet Potenzo Lopes saw three green pigeons. He had not seen the species for years. The birds were Timor green pigeons, and the site, in Manatuto municipality, had no previous record of them. With the species nearing extinction, finding three birds in a new place was […]
Tag: Pigeons
An invasive guava is muscling out Madagascar’s forests — and lemurs are helping
Madagascar is renowned for its lemurs, which are threatened due to hunting and deforestation. Restoring native forests to ensure their survival is critical, but once damaged, forests in Madagascar are vulnerable to takeover by invasive guava trees — whose seeds the lemurs themselves are helping to spread. When the delicious strawberry guavas (Psidium cattleyanum) are […]
Bumblebees Have Learned to Read Simple Morse Code–an Ability Seen Only in Humans and Vertebrates
A new study is the first to show that an insect can differentiate between different durations of visual cues. In Morse code, a short duration flash or “dot” denotes a letter “E” and a long duration flash— or “dash”—means letter “T”. Until now, the ability to discriminate between “dot” and “dash” has been seen only […]
Nairobi’s Birdman Rescues Raptors While Dreaming of a Better Future
In Nairobi’s bustling streets, Rodgers Oloo Magutha, better known as the “Birdman,” is easy to spot — with black kites perched on his head and shoulders, drawing smiles, curiosity, and even fear from passersby. At just 27, Magutha has spent more than a decade living on the streets, where he found solace and purpose in […]
‘It proves this can be done’: Berlin the blueprint to bring goshawks to UK cities
Firing off rapid keck-keck-keck cries that rang out through a park in central Berlin, the goshawks soared high above the trees and circled before swooping down to chase off a ragtag bunch of crows that had begun to mob them from below. “It’s basically a flying Batman bringing law and order to the city,” said […]
Country diary: It doesn’t pay to be a brightly coloured pigeon
From my bed, I have an uninterrupted view of the roof opposite. Every morning, just after sunrise, a small colony of feral pigeons stirs, emerging from behind the solar panels. All but one are pure white, stark against the slate. The outlier, a single male with mottled black-and-white plumage, struts along the ridge tiles with […]
Petition: Demand Justice for Pigeons Glued to a Wall in Hong Kong
A man was walking along outside in Hong Kong recently when he noticed something startling: four pigeons were sitting frozen in place, stuck and unable to move, on top of a wall. When he examined the situation more closely, he saw that someone had applied 3-foot-long streaks of adhesive along the wall, gluing the poor, […]
The US government’s war on wildlife, explained in 3 charts
An obscure arm of the federal government killed almost 2 million wild animals last year using a variety of methods, including firearms, poisons, and traps that ensnare an animal’s neck, feet, or entire body. Carried out by the US Department of Agriculture’s euphemistically named Wildlife Services department, the 2024 body count included over 2,000 green […]