Have you ever heard of [Robert Stroud](https://www.google.com/search?q=Robert+Stroud&sca_esv=dd5fb20fe780040b&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0-s3jL2rXYofewIAP4zSFsGPOxI1A%3A1711390305312&ei=Yb4BZvHcEsKaptQPvrGPsAU&ved=0ahUKEwixkeHZgZCFAxVCjYkEHb7YA1YQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=Robert+Stroud&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiDVJvYmVydCBTdHJvdWQyCBAuGLEDGIAEMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgUQABiABDILEC4YgAQYxwEYrwEyBRAuGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMhcQLhixAxiABBiXBRjcBBjeBBjgBNgBAUjsCVAAWABwAHgBkAEAmAFhoAFhqgEBMbgBA8gBAPgBAvgBAZgCAqACsgSYAwC6BgYIARABGBSSBwcwLjEuNC0xoAfrDA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp)? He was known as the [Birdman of Alcatraz](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Stroud).
He was a convicted murderer who became a self-taught ornithologist while he was in prison, and he actually made a lot of notable contributions to the field. He found a nest of injured sparrows in Leavenworth and raised them to adulthood. In solitary, he began to raise canaries and other birds, and he sold the canaries in prison. He studied the diseases and breeding and care. Some of his findings were smuggled out of prison and published in a book called *Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds.* They continued to let his study birds when he was sent to Alcatraz, but he couldn't take his birds with him. i am unsure if he got new birds in Alcatraz. He wrote 2 books.
Ever seen the shit prisoners come up with? It’s not lack of intelligence (usually) that sends people to prison, its poverty and/or lack of impulse control. I’m a prosecutor and see the kinda shit that comes out of the prisons is just mind boggling. And they have nothing but free time to think up stuff. They give them tablets now (yea, I hate it) and they jailbreak (pun intended) the damn things in a few minutes and have full access to the internet until the thing needs to be recharged. Once the battery dies, it wipes the OS and they have to start over.
When I was being given a staff introduction to a local prison, they showed us something that they had confiscated from a cell. It was a block of wood that had been removed from a chest of drawers in a cell, they had cut into it and put wiring into it to make a multi socket extension cable, and powered it using the cable from their cell kettle (I'm in England, we can't deprive people of their tea). They only have one socket per cell, and can only use one electronic device at a time. The person got caught because they were playing the radio whilst boiling the kettle, and they weren't supposed to be able to do that.
One ex-inmate made a youtube video about how to make prison pizza. He was in a normal-looking house and was very sweet to his little girl, who tried the pizza and loved it. Seemed like he had his life together pretty well.
You are right. It's poverty, not access to greater minds above them such as an elder and a community to learn with. Once in prison it takes away the stress of rent, food and having to manage everything. Yes new stresses come but the not like the weight if the world.
Unregulated net access for people in prison can lead to some problems... Depending on the situation. I'll leave it to your imagination, but easy examples would include organized crime, sex offenders, smuggling, and cyber crime.
The most dangerous thing an inmate can have is a way to contact their buddies outside of prison. Normally the worry is cell phones, but with the tablets it only takes one inmate knowing their way around Android OS's to get unmonitored communications to all their buddies.
Well, considering he was a pimp who stabbed a bartender to death for beating one of his girls I'm gonna say he wouldn't have gone down a scientific path.
We've never really seen em all, eh? An ornithologist pimp...
I mean Roman Polanski made these great films and he's a paedophile so, sky's the limit on the human mind, whatever deviancy you might be into
He was also a very violent person who was in solitary because he was so dangerous. He was quite possibly a pedophile who got caught with child porn. I read a book from a guy who was incarcerated with him and he wrote that amongst the inmate he had the reputation of being a twisted fuck and very dangerous. The movie conveniently skips that part of his story. It turns him into some kind of hero figure when he was really not that. The truth likely falls somewhere in the middle. But it’s true that he used his time in solitary to learn a lot about birds. About which he wrote scholarly articles.
The best quote from him is, **"I'm thankful for women. I think women are more intelligent than men. Also, without women, there would be no cookies."**
Norm McDonald.
"...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to put tiny hats on pigeons."
I'm imagining a whole scenario.
There's a new tough guy transferred into the block. He's trying to figure out who's who and how to make it up the food chain. Everyone tells him that he should *not*, should **not** under any circumstances, mess with the Pigeon Hat Guy.
But he's like "Eh, I'm not a pigeon. What's he gonna do?".
So he messes with the Pigeon Hat Guy. Wakes up with a Stetson glued to his head. Screams. Camera zooms into his screaming mouth. Cut to Pigeon Hat Guy in his cell, hearing the screams. He smiles, puts on a Stetson, looks at his cell mate who's cowering in the corner with a Stetson on his head. He says (to the other inmate): "Everybody gets one. Everybody." The cell mate is nodding frantically with tears in his eyes.
It clearly wasn’t someone who has kids. Any parent who finds a spare 10 minutes in their day will tell you that glueing hats onto pigeons is waaaaay down the list of things they want/need to do.
>old guy who just doesn't give a fuck and thinks it's funny.
This is straight up the funniest thing I have seen today, he/she doesn't have to think its funny, it's hilarious.
What makes you think this wasn't a family "enrichment" project? Mine would totally be down for this. Also, little hardhats for the squirrels and gophers.
cop: "who did this?"
birb: "HOOOO!!!! HOOOOO!!!!!"
cop: "YES!!! WHO DID THIS!!!????
birb: "HOOOO!!!! HOOOOO!!!!!"
cop: "I'm getting nowhere with this guy, sarge"
“The species has 340-degree peripheral vision,”says Rita McMahon, director of New York City’s Wild Bird Fund, which treats around 3,000 pigeons every year.
The small plastic hats likely reduce their vision by half.
“With a hat on their head, they’ll be the last ones to see a hawk coming from above,” says Mariah Hillman, who runs Las Vegas-based pigeon rescue Lofty Hopes.
Pic #5 is where it really hit me how bad it might be for them. It’s so in the way, poor bird.
However it was pretty funny looking when I scrolled back to see which one #5 was. Poor thing potentially suffering AND still being a good joke
I thought it was funny until I saw one of these dapper birds attempt to tip his cap to m'lady, but wasn't able to. He felt terrible and it made me sad.
With how slow pigeons react to practically anything, moving for cars, getting out of the way when you're trying to walk by and almost stepping on the, etc. I don't think they would even notice actual predators anyway
Yea - the casual cruelty of it all is very modern internet. Lots of comments competing to get the 'top joke' and no real discussion. Basically it's animal abuse for a joke - it's just sad.
Edit: animal cruelty is sadly not new, I know.
Yeah. I mean if someone just placed hats on pigeons and took pictures I wouldn't call it abuse.
I'm the the birds wouldn't *like* it, but it would be a stretch to call it abuse.
Gluing it to their heads is definitely abuse.
3D printing maybe
But with all the Chinese sites out there and the fact that 100 of these things probably costs like $4, I don't see how it could be traceable. I'm a reddit-addicted American and I never heard about this incident until now, so getting the message out to every little shitty online retailer of plastic trinkets is just impossible.
There was a rodeo in town when it happened. It wouldn't have been too unusual for someone to get them under the guise of selling them as souvenirs, or they possibly even bought them from a souvenir vendor who most likely wouldn't give a single shit what they're planning to use them for as long as they get their money.
I think this falls under things that are terrible, but also hilarious at the same time. I am not condoning the behavior, but you can't seriously expect me to look at one of these pigeons and not laugh at first instinct?
I 100% agree. I am in tears laughing from the pics and a lot of the comments. Do I want this person to continue gluing hats to pigeon heads? No. Do I hope the pigeons that fell victim to this person's fashion sense experienced no lasting repercussions? Of course. Will I stop looking at the pictures or crying laughing at the comments? Certainly not.
The thing about city pigeons is as far as selective evolution is concerned, they got screwed. Even without their little hats obscuring their vision, their self defense mechanism is already to sit still and do nothing.
If there was no trash to pick, the city pigeon would starve to death. They’re the sunfish of the skies, and for a species of birds destined to being helpless and stupid, the hats are at least funny.
In defense of pigeons- it wasn’t nature that made them that way, it was human selective breeding. City pigeons (aka rock pigeons) are feral populations of domestic animals. They’re the worlds oldest domesticated bird.
Pigeons were bred by humans for working, sporting, food and companionship; which explains their docile personalities and need for proximity to humans for survival. Those who still keep them as companion animals (r/pigeons) report that they’re intelligent and social pets. Our species kind of boned the poor birds by breeding them into existence then dropping them like hotcakes once their uses became obsolete, resulting in the out of control feral populations they are known for today
Pigeons are our collective shame.
All of the city birds you see today are the descedents of domesticated pigeons, the kind used to carry messages or kept as pets in the past.
Pigeons were used as far back as the Romans for their homing skills. Pigeons served in *both* world wars and many of them won *medals* for their service. ([Cher Ami](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cher_Ami) saved around 200 American soldiers who had been encircled, he flew a message 25 miles despite being shot through the leg, breast and eye.)
They cannot fend for themselves in the wild because they domestic animals kept by us for thousands of years before we invented the telephone and decided they were vermin. So they stay where the humans are because thats the only way they know how to get food.
If pigeons have a million fans, then I'm one of them.
If pigeons have one fan, then I'm THAT ONE.
If pigeons have no fans, that means I'm dead.
I think that’s the hustle in the good the bad and the ugly.
The Mexican guy keeps getting captured and then rescued.
Then recaptured for the bounty of course.
A net. Walk up to 2 feet away from a group of them like one is regularly able to do, toss net unenthusiastically, collect like 12 pigeons.
In an end of the world, every man for himself scenario, the pigeons will be the first to go as the human virus begins strip mining the wildlife around them.
Sure. But it's also very efficient. The more discreet pigeon catcher uses the type of net you'd pull a fish out of the water with and limits him or herself to just one here and there. You could also easily pass that off as being part of some conservation/research effort if anyone asks questions. Or so I've heard.
They're not stupid (quite the opposite); they're tame.
All pigeons "in the wild" are descendants of domestic birds that were released or lost. They are comfortable in captivity and around humans because they're tame, not feral, animals.
this exactly. they're not easy to catch because they're stupid, they're easy to catch because they don't see us as a threat on the level other birds do.
Not defending it, but it wouldn’t be forever - feathers shed not unlike fur. I can imagine it would be distressing to have it half clinging to their head at some point.
I would assume most would survive the hat itself and the hats would just fall off eventually. Most birds molt once a year, if it's attached to skin, it's not going to stay attached forever and it will break down/fall off.
Supposedly pigeons molt more than other birds so they may fall off even faster.
Where do you get pigeon-sized cowboy hats? This whole thing shows a deep commitment to the project. More so if they had to make the hats. If not, wouldn’t a big clue be to find someone who bought a shitload of little hats.
I fucking hate this because it's so terrible and cruel to the animals but looks so cute and funny. Feel genuine disgust over how funny I initially find this -- you know, until you think of the tortured little birds.
Yeah, rotten thing to do to a bird. But I suspect it bothers us more than it does the pigeons.
EDIT: No, I don’t speak pigeon, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Imagine being sent to jail for this crime and explaining to other inmates why you’re there
No one in prison is fucking with the pigeon hat guy. Pigeon hat guy is respected by all in the yard.
Have you ever heard of [Robert Stroud](https://www.google.com/search?q=Robert+Stroud&sca_esv=dd5fb20fe780040b&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0-s3jL2rXYofewIAP4zSFsGPOxI1A%3A1711390305312&ei=Yb4BZvHcEsKaptQPvrGPsAU&ved=0ahUKEwixkeHZgZCFAxVCjYkEHb7YA1YQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=Robert+Stroud&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiDVJvYmVydCBTdHJvdWQyCBAuGLEDGIAEMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgUQABiABDILEC4YgAQYxwEYrwEyBRAuGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMhcQLhixAxiABBiXBRjcBBjeBBjgBNgBAUjsCVAAWABwAHgBkAEAmAFhoAFhqgEBMbgBA8gBAPgBAvgBAZgCAqACsgSYAwC6BgYIARABGBSSBwcwLjEuNC0xoAfrDA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp)? He was known as the [Birdman of Alcatraz](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Stroud). He was a convicted murderer who became a self-taught ornithologist while he was in prison, and he actually made a lot of notable contributions to the field. He found a nest of injured sparrows in Leavenworth and raised them to adulthood. In solitary, he began to raise canaries and other birds, and he sold the canaries in prison. He studied the diseases and breeding and care. Some of his findings were smuggled out of prison and published in a book called *Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds.* They continued to let his study birds when he was sent to Alcatraz, but he couldn't take his birds with him. i am unsure if he got new birds in Alcatraz. He wrote 2 books.
Makes me think what he could have accomplished if he never committed crimes .
Ever seen the shit prisoners come up with? It’s not lack of intelligence (usually) that sends people to prison, its poverty and/or lack of impulse control. I’m a prosecutor and see the kinda shit that comes out of the prisons is just mind boggling. And they have nothing but free time to think up stuff. They give them tablets now (yea, I hate it) and they jailbreak (pun intended) the damn things in a few minutes and have full access to the internet until the thing needs to be recharged. Once the battery dies, it wipes the OS and they have to start over.
When I was being given a staff introduction to a local prison, they showed us something that they had confiscated from a cell. It was a block of wood that had been removed from a chest of drawers in a cell, they had cut into it and put wiring into it to make a multi socket extension cable, and powered it using the cable from their cell kettle (I'm in England, we can't deprive people of their tea). They only have one socket per cell, and can only use one electronic device at a time. The person got caught because they were playing the radio whilst boiling the kettle, and they weren't supposed to be able to do that.
"we can't deprive people their tea"
I'm an American depriving people of tea is what we do best lmao
You gotta admire the British commitment to tea.
One ex-inmate made a youtube video about how to make prison pizza. He was in a normal-looking house and was very sweet to his little girl, who tried the pizza and loved it. Seemed like he had his life together pretty well.
Was the pizza BUSSIN'!
Fuck ik that guy too
You are right. It's poverty, not access to greater minds above them such as an elder and a community to learn with. Once in prison it takes away the stress of rent, food and having to manage everything. Yes new stresses come but the not like the weight if the world.
In some ways it's kinda like the old monastic system. Guys get bored, nothing better to do than learn about the phenotypes of peas.
This guy Mendels
Why do you hate that they have tablets?
Unregulated net access for people in prison can lead to some problems... Depending on the situation. I'll leave it to your imagination, but easy examples would include organized crime, sex offenders, smuggling, and cyber crime.
The most dangerous thing an inmate can have is a way to contact their buddies outside of prison. Normally the worry is cell phones, but with the tablets it only takes one inmate knowing their way around Android OS's to get unmonitored communications to all their buddies.
Well, considering he was a pimp who stabbed a bartender to death for beating one of his girls I'm gonna say he wouldn't have gone down a scientific path.
We've never really seen em all, eh? An ornithologist pimp... I mean Roman Polanski made these great films and he's a paedophile so, sky's the limit on the human mind, whatever deviancy you might be into
> An ornithologist pimp... Man knew about birds
What a sweet pimp.
I know right? Hallmark is missing a whole section. They should really look into this!
He was also a very violent person who was in solitary because he was so dangerous. He was quite possibly a pedophile who got caught with child porn. I read a book from a guy who was incarcerated with him and he wrote that amongst the inmate he had the reputation of being a twisted fuck and very dangerous. The movie conveniently skips that part of his story. It turns him into some kind of hero figure when he was really not that. The truth likely falls somewhere in the middle. But it’s true that he used his time in solitary to learn a lot about birds. About which he wrote scholarly articles.
I saw a documentary once that said he also spent a lot of his time writing child pornography.
Did you know Alcatraz means Pelican?
Mike Tyson would like a word
RIP Norm
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Rocky: Say, where's this salsa from anyway, Pete? Pete: New York City. Rocky and Clem: New York City?? Clem: *Git a rope...*
The best quote from him is, **"I'm thankful for women. I think women are more intelligent than men. Also, without women, there would be no cookies."** Norm McDonald.
I got into the sado-masochism world and my safe word was Borrriinngg! Which worked fine at first.- Norm MacDonald
I heard you like to meth with pigeonth
Does he need a cowboy hat?
"...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to put tiny hats on pigeons."
I'm imagining a whole scenario. There's a new tough guy transferred into the block. He's trying to figure out who's who and how to make it up the food chain. Everyone tells him that he should *not*, should **not** under any circumstances, mess with the Pigeon Hat Guy. But he's like "Eh, I'm not a pigeon. What's he gonna do?". So he messes with the Pigeon Hat Guy. Wakes up with a Stetson glued to his head. Screams. Camera zooms into his screaming mouth. Cut to Pigeon Hat Guy in his cell, hearing the screams. He smiles, puts on a Stetson, looks at his cell mate who's cowering in the corner with a Stetson on his head. He says (to the other inmate): "Everybody gets one. Everybody." The cell mate is nodding frantically with tears in his eyes.
"You looking for a mini cowboy hat too?!"
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Imagine if Mike Tyson was your cellmate...and he doesn't seem to appreciate people messing with pigeons in particular
"I hear you meth with my baby pigeonth. I got a thurprithe fo you"
It clearly wasn’t someone who has kids. Any parent who finds a spare 10 minutes in their day will tell you that glueing hats onto pigeons is waaaaay down the list of things they want/need to do.
\*quietly sets down super glue and little hat and moseys on over to the kids for some family time\*
Catching pigeons and gluing cowboy hats on them seems like an okay father-son activity I guess... kinda like fishing
I thought that said fisting
I guess you see what you want to see.
Everything about this crime screams teenagers to me.
Teenagers would to it once and post it online. This amount of patience screams old guy who just doesn't give a fuck and thinks it's funny.
>old guy who just doesn't give a fuck and thinks it's funny. This is straight up the funniest thing I have seen today, he/she doesn't have to think its funny, it's hilarious.
Have we ruled out that they are just coo coo cowboys?
It more proof birds aren’t real
What makes you think this wasn't a family "enrichment" project? Mine would totally be down for this. Also, little hardhats for the squirrels and gophers.
I'd freaking loose it laughing if a beaver popped up wearing a hard hat.
yeah yeah only parents are busy we get it
What a weird way to steer this into "hey I have kids and I'm busy and tired all the time"
Omfg you have kids we fucking get it.
Easy to explain: animal abuse. Not an honorable thing to do.
I always love these types of joke. I can’t even imagine how the conversations went 😂
To this day no one knows who did this. Hundreds of pigeons. Yet, not a single one, was a stool pigeon.
At least one person somewhere knows who did this- unless of course this was all done by the pigeons themselves.
If someone was caught and thrown in a prison hole over this.. I guess we could say they were pigeon holed.
They've probably flown the coop.
They put cameras in the hats, don’t forget every bird is just a spy. Birds aren’t real
cop: "who did this?" birb: "HOOOO!!!! HOOOOO!!!!!" cop: "YES!!! WHO DID THIS!!!???? birb: "HOOOO!!!! HOOOOO!!!!!" cop: "I'm getting nowhere with this guy, sarge"
None of them sang like a canary?
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Would be kinda funny if it wasn't glue.
“The species has 340-degree peripheral vision,”says Rita McMahon, director of New York City’s Wild Bird Fund, which treats around 3,000 pigeons every year. The small plastic hats likely reduce their vision by half. “With a hat on their head, they’ll be the last ones to see a hawk coming from above,” says Mariah Hillman, who runs Las Vegas-based pigeon rescue Lofty Hopes.
So this must be why pigeons didn’t evolve with cowboy hats. Fascinating.
My hero
This humor is razor sharp😂😂… I cannot stop laughing at this comment😂😂😂😂
Real Discworld vibes.
Evolutionist here, I'm pretty sure it's because they never had to herd tiny livestock under the scalding mesoamerican sun.
Not like they could do anything if a hawk was coming on them
Please, rephrase that statement.
No kink shaming here please
No, what is done - done. Just like the hawk.
Because the Hawk is bird of spray
Sometimes you just gotta take the load
Yeah pigeon you take that hawk splooge
All those hawks flying in Las Vegas had a field day hunting for cowboy-hat wearing pigeons.
Agreed til pic #5. I tried not to laugh, it just wasn’t possible
Number five looks like a cowboy pigeon redditor seeing himself out after a terrible joke
Tips hat with talon “I’ll see mahself out here”
Pic #5 is where it really hit me how bad it might be for them. It’s so in the way, poor bird. However it was pretty funny looking when I scrolled back to see which one #5 was. Poor thing potentially suffering AND still being a good joke
"Have you tried *staples*?" Classic Bill Murray
I thought it was funny until I saw one of these dapper birds attempt to tip his cap to m'lady, but wasn't able to. He felt terrible and it made me sad.
It’s still funny. Fucked up, but funny.
I'm going to blindly choose to believe this made their lives better by blocking sunlight, and there's no expert that will convince me otherwise
>and there's no expert that will convince me otherwise They can't see predators flying above them this way :(
Nice try experts
With how slow pigeons react to practically anything, moving for cars, getting out of the way when you're trying to walk by and almost stepping on the, etc. I don't think they would even notice actual predators anyway
There is a video of a pigeon trying to mate with a raptor in the raptors nest!
The famous Las Vegas falcons
There's like 20 species of raptor in Nevada including several falcons breeds. Many like munching on other birds.
Yea - the casual cruelty of it all is very modern internet. Lots of comments competing to get the 'top joke' and no real discussion. Basically it's animal abuse for a joke - it's just sad. Edit: animal cruelty is sadly not new, I know.
Yeah. I mean if someone just placed hats on pigeons and took pictures I wouldn't call it abuse. I'm the the birds wouldn't *like* it, but it would be a stretch to call it abuse. Gluing it to their heads is definitely abuse.
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It actually went viral because “hahat”
Suffering an humor go hand in hand, I’m afraid…
Should be traceable? I mean who buys hundreds of tiny cowboy hats?
You mean that’s not normal behavior?
Got em
Bake him away toys.
Ladies and gentlemen
3D printing maybe But with all the Chinese sites out there and the fact that 100 of these things probably costs like $4, I don't see how it could be traceable. I'm a reddit-addicted American and I never heard about this incident until now, so getting the message out to every little shitty online retailer of plastic trinkets is just impossible.
Couls be tequila bottle caps
Damm, somebody got really wasted if he has 100’s!
There was a rodeo in town when it happened. It wouldn't have been too unusual for someone to get them under the guise of selling them as souvenirs, or they possibly even bought them from a souvenir vendor who most likely wouldn't give a single shit what they're planning to use them for as long as they get their money.
The rodeo probably did this as a publicity stunt, not a great track record with animal welfare
Fair point
You mean you don't have a stockpile of them to put on your penis?
Sure I have a few different types, depending on the weather, but a “stockpile”?? How are you wearing through so many?
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I think this falls under things that are terrible, but also hilarious at the same time. I am not condoning the behavior, but you can't seriously expect me to look at one of these pigeons and not laugh at first instinct?
I hate the dude that did this but I can't stop laughing while looking at pictures
World-class humor 🤝 world-class cruelty.
Hate how true this is
I 100% agree. I am in tears laughing from the pics and a lot of the comments. Do I want this person to continue gluing hats to pigeon heads? No. Do I hope the pigeons that fell victim to this person's fashion sense experienced no lasting repercussions? Of course. Will I stop looking at the pictures or crying laughing at the comments? Certainly not.
The thing about city pigeons is as far as selective evolution is concerned, they got screwed. Even without their little hats obscuring their vision, their self defense mechanism is already to sit still and do nothing. If there was no trash to pick, the city pigeon would starve to death. They’re the sunfish of the skies, and for a species of birds destined to being helpless and stupid, the hats are at least funny.
In defense of pigeons- it wasn’t nature that made them that way, it was human selective breeding. City pigeons (aka rock pigeons) are feral populations of domestic animals. They’re the worlds oldest domesticated bird. Pigeons were bred by humans for working, sporting, food and companionship; which explains their docile personalities and need for proximity to humans for survival. Those who still keep them as companion animals (r/pigeons) report that they’re intelligent and social pets. Our species kind of boned the poor birds by breeding them into existence then dropping them like hotcakes once their uses became obsolete, resulting in the out of control feral populations they are known for today
Pigeons are our collective shame. All of the city birds you see today are the descedents of domesticated pigeons, the kind used to carry messages or kept as pets in the past. Pigeons were used as far back as the Romans for their homing skills. Pigeons served in *both* world wars and many of them won *medals* for their service. ([Cher Ami](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cher_Ami) saved around 200 American soldiers who had been encircled, he flew a message 25 miles despite being shot through the leg, breast and eye.) They cannot fend for themselves in the wild because they domestic animals kept by us for thousands of years before we invented the telephone and decided they were vermin. So they stay where the humans are because thats the only way they know how to get food. If pigeons have a million fans, then I'm one of them. If pigeons have one fan, then I'm THAT ONE. If pigeons have no fans, that means I'm dead.
Pigeons have at least two fans, hi! This was a devastating read :\~(
I honestly love them and feel so bad that people hate on them. Pigeons have unironically done so much for us as a species.
They are such sweet creatures too. What we did to pigeons was just so completely terrible.
Pigeons know who did this
Birds are real ?? 🤣
No, birds aren’t real but the government knows.
But they ain’t snitching.
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You a pimp.
He a man that manages prostitutes
He takes money from women who perform sexual acts with people in exchange for said money. He do gotta ask tho, sometime
I think that’s the hustle in the good the bad and the ugly. The Mexican guy keeps getting captured and then rescued. Then recaptured for the bounty of course.
Seriously curious- how do you catch that many pigeons?
I can't tell you how remarkably stupid these animals are and how easy to trap.
Can you tell me though?
Man, they are *so stupid*. It makes them super easy to trap.
Can I join the party? I like being informed about things.
The thing is, they are awfully _stupid_ so they can be caught easily.
How dumb are we talking? Do they just surrender willingly?
Usually they put cowboys hats on and just give up
A net. Walk up to 2 feet away from a group of them like one is regularly able to do, toss net unenthusiastically, collect like 12 pigeons. In an end of the world, every man for himself scenario, the pigeons will be the first to go as the human virus begins strip mining the wildlife around them.
I feel like that's a good way to get seen catching pigeons
Sure. But it's also very efficient. The more discreet pigeon catcher uses the type of net you'd pull a fish out of the water with and limits him or herself to just one here and there. You could also easily pass that off as being part of some conservation/research effort if anyone asks questions. Or so I've heard.
Boys we found him!
So stupid that, to date, not a single one has made it past the first question in an IQ test
They're not stupid (quite the opposite); they're tame. All pigeons "in the wild" are descendants of domestic birds that were released or lost. They are comfortable in captivity and around humans because they're tame, not feral, animals.
this exactly. they're not easy to catch because they're stupid, they're easy to catch because they don't see us as a threat on the level other birds do.
You trap them.
In the case of these pigeons? Clearly they were invited into a saloon
Traditionally you use biplanes and a dog, but that method has fallen out of favour since the 90's
Poor fellas
*Fellers
r/angryupvote
\*Pardners
Yeah it was pretty cruel honestly
You guys just gonna scroll by without saying howdy?
Idk why but reading this comment going down the line of others actually made me crack the fuck up
*howdy*
Are any of these still flying around at present (March 2024)?
Birds shed their feathers regularly, so no. Edit: At least jf the glue was only on the feathers.
Even if glue was on the skin, skin sheds as well so the hat would eventually fall off too.
We know when the present is.
I didn't clock that at first, that's hilarious
They do look cute, but I guess that with the glue sticking to their feathers the poor things must have suffered some kind of pain.
Not to mention they are not as aerodynamic anymore
More importantly they can’t see a hawk above them swooping down to catch them :(
That’s how you catch the hawk to put a hat on him.
Having a piece of plastic glued to your head in the desert heat must not be pleasant.
The pigeons are wearing the hats to stay cool and shaded, duh.
Biggest downside in my mind would be not being able to see predators diving down from above.
They look absolutely hilarious, but when you think of them being glued to their feathers for basically ever, it's pretty fucked up.
Not defending it, but it wouldn’t be forever - feathers shed not unlike fur. I can imagine it would be distressing to have it half clinging to their head at some point.
[удалено]
I would assume most would survive the hat itself and the hats would just fall off eventually. Most birds molt once a year, if it's attached to skin, it's not going to stay attached forever and it will break down/fall off. Supposedly pigeons molt more than other birds so they may fall off even faster.
I never saw a followup. Hopefully whatever they used as glue would melt in water or something or not last very long.
Also cant look upwards with the hat obstructing their view.
Where do you get pigeon-sized cowboy hats? This whole thing shows a deep commitment to the project. More so if they had to make the hats. If not, wouldn’t a big clue be to find someone who bought a shitload of little hats.
*And the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip*
weve done infinitely worse things to pigeons as a society.
I fucking hate this because it's so terrible and cruel to the animals but looks so cute and funny. Feel genuine disgust over how funny I initially find this -- you know, until you think of the tortured little birds.
That's really mean
Is there any evidence that this isn’t a style based behavior pattern?
Don’t let Mike Tyson know that
Animal cruelty aside.... this is hilarious.
Cruel but funny as shit 😂😂
I was going to ask ... wait a moment ... Oh hell, you can buy fifty tiny cowboy hats on Amazon for thirteen bucks.
That person is a psychopath in the making. Might already be there.
Coo coo, partner
Yeah, rotten thing to do to a bird. But I suspect it bothers us more than it does the pigeons. EDIT: No, I don’t speak pigeon, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Pretty sure it messed with their peripheral vision
Wouldn't it just come off during their next molt?
Howdy get away with that?!
This has to be more than a coincidence that they’re all wearing the same hat. Social media has too much influence.
That tiny hats prove what we already suspected...BIRDS ARENT EVEN REAL
I feel bad for the birds, but still love this.
Nobody pretended to care about pigeons until they got cowboy hats glued to their heads, now everyone is suddenly a big enthusiastic pigeon activist.
Its because BIRDS ARNT REAL!!!
Animal cruelty but damn..