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The day I swore by that 'pigeons don't fly at night' claim... then my Ring camera proved me wrong | Fact Check This - Free To Speak

brianreed•2mo ago

The day I swore by that 'pigeons don't fly at night' claim... then my Ring camera proved me wrong

Last Wednesday I was arguing with my buddy Mike in Austin about that viral post saying pigeons are strictly daytime flyers, citing some old birdwatching blog. I was dead set sure it was true until I pulled up my Ring footage from 2 AM and saw three pigeons landing on my porch light. Anyone else have a solid source on pigeon night behavior actually being common in cities?

3 comments

3 Comments

price.ben2mo ago

Pigeons are absolutely night flyers in cities, the lights throw off their whole schedule. Next time Mike gives you grief, tell him to watch any downtown parking garage around 3 AM, you'll see them roosting and moving around under the LEDs. The real trick is checking your local bird rescue groups, they have data on when pigeons get brought in at night from window strikes. I had the same argument with my neighbor until I set up a cheap trail cam pointed at the alley, caught them doing laps under the streetlights at 4 AM. Pigeons learned real quick that city lights mean they can scavenge way later than their country cousins, so the old birdwatching blogs are just wrong for urban spots.

morgan_king362mo ago

Guess I've been sleepwalking through my own city nights missing the whole pigeon rave scene.

dylan_brown302mo ago

Yeah so I actually set up a Wyze cam in my backyard last spring just to see what was going on and sure enough the pigeons were doing full circuits under the porch light from like 2:30 AM until dawn. They’d land on the fence, chill for a bit, then take off again. The key is to look for the ones that hang around gas stations and fast food parking lots at night, those birds are basically nocturnal at this point. I started tracking them on iNaturalist and found a solid pattern where they’d hit the same 7-Eleven roof every night around midnight. If you really want proof just go sit in a Walmart parking lot at 3 AM with a coffee, you’ll see them working the light poles like clockwork.