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Parents and Pigeons Please cite this article as: A new PigeonWatch program brings parents and kids together Project PigeonWatch has been given a huge boost with a new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Called "Parents Involved—Pigeons Everywhere" (PIPE), the grant focuses on getting groups of parents and children involved in science activities starting with Project PigeonWatch. The grant is a collaborative effort with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and KCET Community Television of Southern California. Project PigeonWatch is an international research project that currently involves people in the United States and nine other countries. Participants find flocks of feral pigeons ("feral" means wild populations that have been established from domesticated animals) that will allow them to get close enough to observe. Following a simple procedure, PigeonWatchers count the pigeons by color type (also called "morph"), record courtship behaviors, and send their data to the Lab, where scientists use the data to help them understand the distributions of pigeon color morphs across the world and to examine what color morphs pigeons choose as mates ( see figure below).The National Science Foundation funded PIPE as part of its Informal Science Education Program’s Parental Involvement initiative, which promotes science projects that enable parents to participate with their children and to feel comfortable with science. Project PigeonWatch is a natural fit, because the project combines real scientific research with simple procedures and easy-to-understand scientific questions. As part of the grant, we are producing two videos. To our surprise, a national search for a video production crew landed us here in Ithaca, New York, with Photo- Synthesis Productions (PSP). This talented crew of three has produced 27 educational films for the National Geographic Society and won more than 60 national and international awards. After filming pigeons in Syracuse, New York, the impending early spring deadline forced us to gather the troops and head to warmer climates. In Washington, D.C., and Miami, Florida, we worked with many schools, youth groups, and flocks of pigeons. Washington, D.C., turned out to be rather cold and windy, but the parents and children alike enjoyed identifying pigeons—despite shivering and turning blue from the cold. After a quick respite in the Ithaca snow (and PSP’s round-the-clock editing), we took off for Miami, where we chased down anyone who knew anything about local pigeon flocks. Our favorite flock in Miami was intermingled with White Ibises, which also enjoyed our birdseed handouts. We had pigeons roosting and nesting on our hotel patios and eating breakfast with us—and although many people would disagree, we thought this was perfect. In this first year of the PIPE grant, AAAS kicked off Project PigeonWatch in seven cities: Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Louisville, Kentucky; Tampa, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Camden, New Jersey; and St. Louis, Missouri. For the second year starting in July 1999, we will choose 20 more sites to participate. The target groups for these sites are youth groups such as scouts, 4-H clubs, YMCA/YWCA, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. A site can be any group with a leader who can recruit and organize the participation of at least 10 parent-and-child groups. Sites receive some money and all of the materials needed to take part in the project. I encourage individuals and groups to join Project Pigeon- Watch. Of the more than 500 participants who have signed up since the project began in 1996, nearly two-thirds are formal classrooms, after-school programs, or youth groups. Participants live in 46 states (including Alaska and Hawaii), four Canadian provinces, and eight other countries: Mexico, Aruba, New Zealand, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Denmark, and France. One thing is certain: pigeons will make it to the year 2000 without a glitch. To escape the pandemonium, spend your first week of the new year watching pigeons! To get more information about the "Parents Involved—Pigeons Everywhere" grant, call (800) 843-BIRD (2473) and ask for the PIPE Grant Site Information. To receive a "What’s So Special About Pigeons?" video, send $5.00 for shipping and handling to Project PigeonWatch, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York, 14850.
Do Pigeons Choose Mates that Are This
pie chart suggests that female pigeons do choose males that are different from themselves.
If pigeons don’t choose mates of their own color morph, how can there be so many
different colors of pigeons in a flock? It might be that a female chooses a male that is
different from other males; if so, the rare colors will be carried |
on through their offspring and perhaps become more
common. Eventually, a new color morph will become less common, and the process will start
again. The courtship data submitted thus far by participants (135 observations) come from
only a few flocks of pigeons. Perhaps other flocks of pigeons choose mates differently.