Releasing rescued pigeon?

[Serin]

Without having learned street smarts he won't survive in the wild. Pigeons are domesticated animals and even when raised wild live short and hard lives. They survive by breeding a lot to offset the losses. I would keep it as a pet. Letting a single bird fly outdoors wirhout a flock is very risky as he can be targeted by a hawk. They adapt well as indoor pets if its what they know.

 

[SniperGoose]

Yeah I think I'm just going to keep him. I have grown pretty attached to the little guy anyway lol. We named him Percy I'm going to ask one of my co-workers today about commissioning her husband for an outdoor aviary (since he does some really nice woodworking). I already have something in mind for it, but need to draw up the plans.

Also, I know pigeons are social, so I'm assuming I'm going to need to get Percy a friend soon once I have the aviary up. I'm 90% sure Percy is a boy too. Would it be better to get him a female, or just buddy him up with another male? I don't really want any babies at this moment in time lol but I suppose I could just take eggs away if I had to get him a girlfriend.

 

[Serin]

I only have one and she is attached to me but if you are not home a lot and cannot take him with you places another woyld be a good idea. Males can fight so a female is the safest choice. You can switch out any eggs with fakes.

 

[AccidentalBirdDad86]

A few weeks ago, I went into our barn to get some straw for my geese. I noticed something moving on the floor of the barn - a very young pigeon. Way too young to be out of its nest. As we have stray cats in the area, I didn't want to leave it there to die. The nests were all very high up in the barn and I had no way of returning the baby. I took it out of the barn and looked it over to see if it had any noticeable injuries. Thankfully there were none! It could walk around just fine, but was weeks away from being able to fly. Still had a lot of baby fuzz on it too. Oddly enough, it seemed happy that I found it. So I took it upon myself to finish raising it in hopes of releasing it when it was old enough.

*I'll be referring to it as a "he" just for the sake of simplicity from here on out lol
I've been keeping the lil fella in a spare parrot cage in my kitchen. I've already got him eating and drinking on his own. I've taken him outside multiple times already, and he does fly, but prefers to just stay near me and walk around wherever I am.

We have lots of other wild pigeons in the area. I live on a 550 acre farm, and so it's a nice place for pigeons. I've kept pigeons before and re-released them. My dad once used to shoot them with a pellet gun and I would go find them after he went to work, put them in a cage, and take care of them until they were healed. (luckily my dad loves this pigeon, so hopefully this stops him from shooting them from now on) Those pigeons already knew how to survive in the wild though. I'm afraid mine will struggle. I know pigeons are social though, and maybe he would learn from them? Or at least that's what I would hope.

So will he be ok out there on his own? I honestly don't even know if he'll want to leave. I never ever once intended to keep him as a pet. I do love him, but I simply wanted to save him and release after he was ready to go. Any tips on making the release easier on him? I want to give him the best chance of survival possible.

Oh I’m in the exact same situation right now but instead of farm try construction site outside my apartment building. I have a balcony with parrots in cages out there and it’s all enclosed I could do a soft release where I relocate them inside and baby pigeon outside to balcony but I don’t want him to return to my balcony all the time. There are heaps of other pigeons around and he was on the street right outside but I am now reading a LOT about hand raised babies not surviving release. How do I prepare him, and keep him socialised can I play him pigeon videos on YouTube? lol I don’t have a farm yard to take him outside to it’s just inner city streets.

 

[Zenmonkey]

Well this is an ancient thread, resurrected from the land of the lost. But the question has gone unanswered for most of a week, so? Having not raised a pigeon in over a decade, and pretty much only homers, but homers and ferals have a significant overlap, I think.

No pigeon is great for the wild when they first leave the nest. That's part of life. The heaviest losses to hawks, et al are the first couple flights. If a homer survives that, they become much more aware of their surroundings.

I don't believe there is anything special about being raised in captivity that prevents a feral from surviving in the wild. And I don't know that there's such a thing as a truly wild pigeon. There's been a lot of ebb and flow of genes between working breed pigeons and ferals.

You can show the pigeon YouTube videos if you like. Pigeons are intelligent and maybe will pick up something of value. Maybe not. I don't know.

When the bird is 4 or 5 months of age, let it start to free fly. Really even at 3 months of it seems adventurous. Let it return home for food and drink and a safe place at night. There's a good chance it will hang around for a long time.

But with no other pigeons there to be its flock, it will likely eventually relocate to another location. Preferably a location with suitable mates.

Don't be surprised if it continues to return intermittently for a long time. Feel at liberty to provide food, water, and even shelter if it does. Odds are that when things get a little rough, it might come back to you, just n case you remember it. It can't hurt, people might be smart enough to remember specific pigeons!

Good luck with it.