I do not like pigeons.
They are scavengers. Pigeons don’t set out to forage for food. The food is whatever they can find. Quite often, the food isn’t that of what a real bird likes to eat. If there is a morsle of what looks like bread that a human has dropped, they’re all over it. One time I had a family of pigeons nest on the balcony of the apartment I used to have in downtown Iowa City. The nest was impressed. Leaves, twigs, and pieces of garbage they gathered up to make a home only to pop out three more. The nest gave way to piles of bird droppings that coated the entire area that once was there. Then the smell. And then, my roommates didn’t want to touch the mess, so I took charged and cleaned it all up.
I hate pigeons.
Now I’m surrounded by seagulls. They’re much like pigeons, but worse. For the most part, they keep to themselves. This leads me to believe that they are smarter than pigeons, but there could be other explanations. Perhaps their size leads them to be a little slower, thus being more accessible for anyone wanting to cause harm to a slow moving victim. So perhaps it’s a conditioned response to steer clear. However, running by the Lost Lagoon only finds some of them camped out in the middle of the pathway, barely noticing you go by, but that’s easy to do when you are flanked by canadian geese that have a taste for blood if you’re not too careful.