A Guide To Domestic Pigeons

A helpful guide for caring for pigeons, including how to keep a successful dovecote and aviary. Including chapters on the pigeon in history and literature.

Pigeons have long been kept and raced as pets, this guide to training and rearing domestic pigeons has chapters on the habits and care of domestic pigeons.

This text contains a detailed treatise on the correct methods for the management and maintenance of domestic and fancy pigeons, including a wealth of information on such topics as diet, health and ailments, training, breeding, and many more besides. Containing everything a pigeon-keeper could possibly want to know about the subject, this book is perfect for the amateur fancier and also constitutes a great reference book for existing pigeon-keepers. Many antique books such as this are increasingly costly and hard to come by, and it is with this in mind that we have elected to republish this old book now complete with a new introduction on the subject of aviculture.

Part field guide, part history, part ornithology primer, and altogether fun. Fact: Pigeons are amazing, and until recently, humans adored them. We’ve kept them as pets, held pigeon beauty contests, raced them, used them to carry messages over battlefields, harvested their poop to fertilize our crops—and cooked them in gourmet dishes. Now, with The Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, readers can rediscover the wonder. Equal parts illustrated field guide and quirky history, it covers behavior: Why they coo; how they flock; how they preen, kiss, and mate (monogamously); and how they raise their young (on chunky pigeon milk). Anatomy and identification, from Birmingham Roller to the American Giant Runt to the Scandaroon. Birder issues, like what to do if you find a baby pigeon stranded in the park. And our lively shared story together, including all the things we’ve taught them—Ping-Pong, for example. “Rats with wings?” Think again. Pigeons coo, peck and nest all over the world, yet most of us treat them with indifference or disdain. So Rosemary Mosco, a bird-lover, science communicator, writer, and cartoonist (and co-author of The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid) is here to give the pigeon's image a makeover, and to help every town- and city-dweller get closer to nature by discovering the joys of birding through pigeon-watching.