pigeons

[jamie_john]

have you ever seen a baby pigeon coz i have'nt! they all look the same size?

[silly moo]

Only once - saw a young pigeon (though not quite a baby) couple of weeks ago whilst wlking my dog.

[FP]

I see lots of baby pigeons in my garden.  Andy is right, when they leave the nest they are almost adult size.  Baby pigeons are extremely silly young birds.  They often fall off the branches of our trees and keep us amused with their clumsy antics.

If you look at most baby birds, on leaving the next they are the same size as the adult and often appear bigger as they tend to fluff up their feathers.  They are also much fatter than the parent birds, who have to work so hard getting food for their young that the become very thin.

[pjm007]

Unfortunately I managed to squash a baby pigeon with a 40 foot metal container one day, Pigeons nested between the containers, as I was lowering the container onto the stack the somewhat dim little fella decided to go for a walk, he didn't quite make to the fledgling stage. R.I.P poor little pigeon.

[Dark Angel]

I read an old Reader's Digest Article along the lines of "Why do we never see baby pigeons?". The author explained that we never see baby pigeons because they grow up so fast, they take a matter of like a few weeks to grow up and then they leave the nest only when they are fully/almost fully grown. Pigeons had nested on the authors window sill, and he was able to watch their fledgelings grow and fly the nest.  

[SteveD]

I suppose his mummy loves him!:

http://www.newlandsoftware.ltd.uk/Gallery/creatures/birds/slides/baby%20pigeon.html

[Octavius]

I looked around (and tried to avoid the websites about people fancying pigeons - weirdo's!!) and found this:

http://www.homingworld.cwc.net/Egg_onwards.htm