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Observational report reveals the use of plastic tray saucers for nesting in rock pigeons, indicating that novel artificial materials may disrupt thermal regulation and breeding success.
Due to the rapid expansion of the human population, which has replaced agricultural and natural ecosystems with urban areas to provide homes and jobs for people. Natural habitats within and around cities have been decreased, transformed, and fragmented. Certain urban-dwelling bird species use newly available resources for foraging or nest building. Breeding success may be positively or negatively impacted by artificial nest materials. Since the parents of the rock pigeons (Columba livia) in this study used a plastic bottom tray saucer as a nest, it is possible that variations in the optimal temperature required for the development of embryos and chicks caused the nest to collapse.
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Das et al. (2026) studied this question.