4 ms·

Just from my experience as a cyclist in Amsterdam, crows are amazingly intelligent. They actually participate in traffic, and know the difference between bicycl

Just from my experience as a cyclist in Amsterdam, crows are amazingly intelligent. They actually participate in traffic, and know the difference between bicycles, motor vehicles and light rail (they will get out of the way just-in-time for the first two, and happily ignore the latter if they're outside the profile of the train set). Pigeons, on the other hand, are the species that gave birth to the term 'bird brain'. They will happily sit in front of oncoming traffic forever, then take evasive action that is, like, the opposite of the optimal strategy...

jimmaswell 4y ago
Waiting until the last second and zigzagging out of the way works on animal predators, just not manmade machines
arcturus17 4y ago
Pigeons may be dumb as bricks but I’ve never seen one hit by a car. When I’m driving I think I’m going to hit them but they always bail. Credit where credit is due!
- giardini 4y ago
  One day I found, in the parking lot of HEB supermarket, a beautiful, lightweight circular pattern approximately a foot across that appeared to be fabricated. Closer inspection revealed it was a pigeon that had been run over repeatedly over many days. Day and night the sun and cold air dry the pigeon mat. The smashed meat and connective tissue act as a protein glue to hold the mat together. Each vehicle presses, mixes, and spreads the mat into, on average, a very light colorful circular feather pattern (feathers tend to retain their structure more than bone, possibly b/c of their flexibility) that, once thin enough, wafts to and fro in the parking lot winds before settling gently to the ground. I first thought to spray them with a waterproof coating and sell them as "Pigeon Frisbees" but alas, they were aerodynamically unsuitable (they rode the air like cattail seeds), and so, in the end I asked HEB parking lot employees to consider cleaning the remains of dead pigeons as a favor to their customers. The parking lots are more pleasant these days. Plenty of pigeons are killed by cars, esp. females resting in empty parking spots, where they sometimes sleep.
- philsnow 4y ago
  Obligatory Seinfeld bit (George doesn't slow down for some pigeons, they don't evade, he runs them over and his girlfriend thinks he's a butcher because of it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss
jbotz 4y ago
Pigeons are just about the most agile fliers in the bird world, so maybe they just feel that they are above needing "optimal strategies".
tlavoie 4y ago
This story is about my son and his girlfriend's experience, with a raven sort of wind-surfing off the front of their jeep as they drove down the highway: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/raven-dempster-highway-fly-along-1.6689533 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/raven-dempster-highway-... It kept going, and going, and going, and at the end of the video, he was feeding it cat treats.

jimmaswell 4y ago

Waiting until the last second and zigzagging out of the way works on animal predators, just not manmade machines

arcturus17 4y ago

Pigeons may be dumb as bricks but I’ve never seen one hit by a car. When I’m driving I think I’m going to hit them but they always bail. Credit where credit is due!

giardini 4y ago
One day I found, in the parking lot of HEB supermarket, a beautiful, lightweight circular pattern approximately a foot across that appeared to be fabricated. Closer inspection revealed it was a pigeon that had been run over repeatedly over many days. Day and night the sun and cold air dry the pigeon mat. The smashed meat and connective tissue act as a protein glue to hold the mat together. Each vehicle presses, mixes, and spreads the mat into, on average, a very light colorful circular feather pattern (feathers tend to retain their structure more than bone, possibly b/c of their flexibility) that, once thin enough, wafts to and fro in the parking lot winds before settling gently to the ground. I first thought to spray them with a waterproof coating and sell them as "Pigeon Frisbees" but alas, they were aerodynamically unsuitable (they rode the air like cattail seeds), and so, in the end I asked HEB parking lot employees to consider cleaning the remains of dead pigeons as a favor to their customers. The parking lots are more pleasant these days. Plenty of pigeons are killed by cars, esp. females resting in empty parking spots, where they sometimes sleep.
philsnow 4y ago
Obligatory Seinfeld bit (George doesn't slow down for some pigeons, they don't evade, he runs them over and his girlfriend thinks he's a butcher because of it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss

jbotz 4y ago

Pigeons are just about the most agile fliers in the bird world, so maybe they just feel that they are above needing "optimal strategies".

tlavoie 4y ago

This story is about my son and his girlfriend's experience, with a raven sort of wind-surfing off the front of their jeep as they drove down the highway: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/raven-dempster-highway-fly-along-1.6689533 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/raven-dempster-highway-... It kept going, and going, and going, and at the end of the video, he was feeding it cat treats.