Impact of Supplementary Feeding on Feral Pigeon Abundance: A Brief Review

The worldwide increase in the human population has led to rapid urbanization, transforming wild lands into concrete jungles. Increased urbanization has complex direct and indirect effects on native flora and fauna. Species able to take advantage of such changes may develop dense and stable populations. Feral pigeon is one such bird who gets benefited by human presence. Among the factors that favor a certain species is the availability of food, and feral pigeons can exploit the food resources available in urban environments. Rock pigeons are complete granivores, and foraging flights are taken daily from the nearest farmland to feed on grains. In contrast to rock pigeons, feral pigeons have adapted to cities to forage on items other than grains. Summarizing the crop or stomach content of feral pigeons around the world shows us the variety of diets they currently have. Today, along with the raw grains provided to feral pigeons, their diet also consists of bread crumbs, fried snacks, cakes, and garbage provided to them by humans. The impact of the ad libitum availability of food is a marked increase in the reproductive rate. Feral pigeons readily reproduce at any time of the year, resulting in an increased population. The population rise of a single species leads to change in the human conscience of them being harmless animals to pests. Ubiquitous vocalization, acidic excrement that corrodes historic monuments, and their ability to spread diseases are some of the reasons why pigeons are identified as pests.