Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Sunday 29 April 2012

Sunday Selections #67






Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.  

As usual I am running with a theme.  And I am reverting to one of my favourite obsessions - birds.  A little while ago we were visited by a pigeon.  Common or garden.  In a day or so he/she brought a friend to the dinner table.  And within a week we were getting up to twenty at a time, in a variety of colours.  I had assumed that they were an introduced species.

Wrong.  Or sort of right.  When I looked them up in our birds of Australia book (which I must update) I discovered that they are Rock Doves otherwise known as Feral Pigeons.

They are descended from the Rock Pigeon, found in Europe and Asia.  Many plumage variants have been developed over the years and the most common colours of feral birds (found in almost all Australian cities and large towns) are a mixture of grey, black, white and brown with purple and green sheens.  And indeed, they are very beautiful when you look at them more closely.











62 comments:

  1. Gorgeous colours...
    I'm inspired to get the camera out and go out for the afternoon to take some more snaps!

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    1. carmen: Welcome and thank you. For unassuming birds they become quite spectacular on further acquaintance.

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  2. We have them here (Texas and Florida) and they are very beautiful when you look closer at them.

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    1. Cindi: I like the idea of globe trotting pigeons/doves.

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  3. What fun! I love birds, as you know, and these are quite pretty indeed. Lots of bright rings of colors. Thanks for giving me such an eyeful! Much appreciated.

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    1. DJan: Thank you. There are nearly thirty on the front lawn now. And cockatoos shrieking nearby.

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  4. I love the brown ones! I've always loved all brown birds. Maybe it's because so many people favour brightly coloured birds that my mind feels brown ones need some love, too? Whatever the reason, I love brown pigeons. I love all pigeons. I love all birds! Thank you for sharing these beautiful pigeon pictures. :-)

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    1. Cassandra Louise: Welcome and thank you as well. I agree with you that the brown birds often get overlooked. The brown doves here are a lovely shade of mocha quite often with soft purple on their breasts. Enchanting.

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  5. Feral or otherwise, they are beauts!!!!

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    1. Karen: I think I will be calling them Rock Doves now as a celebration of their beauty.

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  6. Such a lovely variety of colours. I wonder if the plainer ones are female as often happens in the bird world?

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    1. Manderley: They are lovely aren't they? I don't know if the muted colours are gender driven and the bird book wasn't explicit about it, but you are more than likely right. I assume it is because they are more in need of camoflague - or it could just be rank sexism.

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  7. Beautiful birds. We had a pair on the back lawn yesterday - one was brown all over - I wonder if that means it was only young? I can't help liking pigeons, even though they are the scourge of so many European cities.
    Thanks for these iridescent lovelies.

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    1. Alexia: Thank you. It may have been only young, but it seems they come in a variety of colours. I have only noticed the brown ones recently though.

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  8. Bonza photos, i especially like the greenish markings around the neck makes 'em stand out in a crowd :-).

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    1. Windsmoke: I agree. The green and the purple are just eyecatching.

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  9. So much color on these birds! Love them!

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    1. Teresa: I had always thought that pigeons were a little monochromatic. How wrong I was.

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  10. What beautiful rainbow-like markings they have. Lovely shots.

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  11. They are lovely to look at, I like how you've captured the sheen. I haven't photographed pigeons in years.

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    1. River: I know a lot of people don't like them, but I think they have a lot of charm.

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  12. Well well well, I didn't know that. My birds of Australia book is held together by hope and stickytape. It is my most used reference book and is getting a new work out as I try and identify the local seabirds. (other than big seagull, little seagull.)

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    1. Kim: Our bird book gets quite a work out as well. We must update it though. There are still quite a few for whome Little Brown Job (LBJ) is as good as it gets.

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  13. Lovely birds, lovely pics. Thanks for.

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  14. The variety of markings is amazing.

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  15. They are gorgeous. Lovely colours.

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    1. Carolina: Subtle beauty, but beauty just the same.

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  16. We have lots of wood pigeons in the large (50ft?) tree in our garden . . . I think they are similar/the same? (?)
    I don't look too closely as I have a phobia of birds. I can still appreciate their beauty, on screen! but I wouldn't get too close in real life.
    Apart from penguins of course, they don't count, I've no idea why (as I've only just realised) . . . It must be because they walk rather than fly, they're more like people really.
    I love iridescence in any form. It amazes me.

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    1. bugerlugs63: They quite possibly are very similar. Penguins are amazing - so clumsy on land, and so, so graceful (and fast) in the water. I had not noticed the irridescence of the rock doves before we started getting flocks of them. My phobia is snakes - and I am not even comfortable with them on screen.

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  17. I like the brown ones and hope they are a familly to themselves. They're so earthy.

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    1. Joanne: I hope so too - or at least that their colours get perpetuated.

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  18. I grew up in NYC, where feral pigeons are called "flying rats". :) Seeing them thru your eyes now, they are quite beautiful!

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    1. Austan: My father, who grew up in Germany, also called them flying rats. They have won a small place in my heart though.

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  19. These are lovely photos. We have a group of neighborhood pigeons that circles around and around every morning. A lot of people don't like them (copious quantities of bird poop!), but I have a soft spot for pigeons. I like the way they sound.

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    1. One Minnesota Writer: Some of the birds who visit us eat super glue first. The bird crap I scrub from the veranda each week is set like concrete. Worth it though.

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  20. The birds in your area just seem so much prettier.

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    1. Lynn: You may just be seeing them through my obsessed eyes.

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  21. I've always loved pigeons, in spite of the rats with wings reputation they have. When I lived in the city, they were a little bit of urban wildlife I enjoyed. It's interesting how universal they are--ours look just like yours.

    In spite of the fact that I often go around humming that Tom Lehrer song...I wouldn't actually make a day of poisoning them.

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  22. I saw the funniest skit in a play this weekend, someone joking about how birds must have mental illness. Hummingbirds - because they beat their wings so quickly, must be manic; seagulls are sociopaths because they steal other birds' food; etc.

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  23. Paper Chipmunk (aka Ellen): I am glad that you are able to restrain yourself. Pigeons (rats with wings) seem to have thrived with humans, unlike many other species. I still love their silly and greedy natures.

    Riot Kitty: Truth. I think many birds are a touch unbalanced. Galahs seem to have sociopathic instincts and adopt a bully boy stance. And King Parrots, despite being one of the bigger parrots are neurotic in the extreme. I would have loved to have seen that skit.

    Blogger is having one of its hissy fits and refusing to allow me to respond to comments individually.

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    1. I also think if we called them something else--say, grey doves or something like that--they might be better liked. They are lovely birds, if they could only rise above the stigma.

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  24. I raised pigeons as a kid and still have a soft spot for them. I also enjoy their behaviors and their soft, cooing sounds.

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    1. Ron Dudley: And if only you could hear the constrast between their coos and the shrieks of the cockatoos and galahs. Many of our birds are pretty. Very few of them are even remotely musical.

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  25. You have made the humble pigeons look very impressive!!

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    1. One Too Many: I found that when I really looked at them, they were impressive.

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  26. I swear we have these all over downtown Minneapolis...

    Pearl

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    1. Pearl: Nice to see you here, and you probably do have them all over downtown Minneapolis. It seems that they just love cities - probably because they like the food.

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  27. What do you find particularly beautiful about them? Naturally I like the coloration along their necks, but living in New York, I've seen many pigeons in my life.

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    1. John Wiswell: I like the iridescence around their necks, the wide range in the colours of their plumage. Their soft voices are much, much more pleasant than most of our natives and I am impressed with how quickly they have made themselves at home. When we go out to feed the birds in the afternoon the seed is bouncing off their backs before we finish. And I am not certan where they appear from either.

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  28. Must have been a scout pigeon searching out food sources or kind hearted humans. He or she then reported back "I found one." Expect more!

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    1. Strayer: He or she was not only a scout pigeon but one with a big mouth. It is not uncommon for us to have twenty of them at a time now.

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  29. --Gorgeous <3

    Hope you are well & your little panthers are keepin' you happy Xxxx

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    1. My Inner Chick: Thank you. I am OKish and the black beasts are thriving.

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  30. I still like to see your birds...we do have pigeons here but they are not as pretty

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    1. Kim @ Stuff: Thank you. They seem to be an underappreciated bird.

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  31. Your pigeons rock, especially with the stripes.

    PS the crested pigeon is a pigeon not a dove but I will be posting some doves later.

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    1. Arija: Thank you. You are right, it is a crested wood pigeon. I am looking forward to your doves. And got very confused when our bird book refers to these gems as rock doves or feral pigeons.

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