Black crowned Night Heron: the twilight hunter

It is a very rare to see night heron hunting in the daylight, they generally laze around the day and active at dusk through the night, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this bird hunched (its typical posture), alternatively stretching out its neck and concentrating on its prey on a bright morning at lal bagh lake (Bangalore). I had postponed photographing black-crowned night heron for later date when I get a better lens since daytime it rests on faraway branches and canopies (the latest is I am having some serious near misses at turf club, one of these days I am going to hit the money pot, then for lens, laptop!!) next to marshes making it difficult to photograph. Black-crowned night-heron has a scientific name Nycticorax nycticorax, which literally means ‘night raven’ in Greek. Night obviously for its nocturnal feeding habits, the second half of the name has a corvid connection not in relation but the vocal similarity to guttural calls of raven. Adult black-crowned night-herons have black caps and back therefore the name.Black-crowned night-heron are unlike any herons as they have short neck and legs, this stocky bird has long thick black bill. Hunting technique is standing still (let me add unnaturally still) at water edge to ambush prey. They are also known to employs another hunting technique called ‘bill vibrating’, whereby it opens and closes its bill rapidly in water and hunts upon any small creature attracted to the disturbance. These birds are solitary hunters but gregarious in their nesting colonies shared by other birds however they have the tendency to steal eggs and young hatchlings during breeding season, the reason why black-crowned night-heron is disliked by other species of herons. They do their best to discourage this heron from nesting in their colonies. The flight of the Night Heron is steady, slow and protracted.

White-eared Night Heron a Chinese bird listed on the IUCN Red List as one of the world’s most endangered species. The white-ear even made the list of the Fifty Rarest Birds of the World (the painting is from Audobon collection and stamp from Sri Lanka).

I was going through the Net and found that Judith Wright had written a poem "Night Herons"; despite many hours of scrounging through the net I just couldn’t locate it. I hope someone would download it at the earliest. Judith Wright has written many poems on birds and wildlife. In her poem “Birds” (1953) she writes “all are what bird is and do not reach beyond the bird” she ends the poem with the line “Be simple to myself as the bird is to the bird.”

Judith Wright was a prolific Australian poet, critic, and short-story writer, an uncompromising environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. In her essay 'The Writer and the Crisis', she quotes the following from poet Francis Ponge: You have but to fix your attention on the first object to hand; you will see immediately that no-one has ever examined it, and that the most elementary things about it remain to be said ... I propose ... the opening of trap-doors in the inner self ... an invasion of qualities ... Thus the best path to take is to consider all things as unknown...and begin again from the beginning.

Writes Wright in mid-1950s: "The two threads of my life, the love of the land itself and the deep unease over the fate of its original people, were beginning to twine together, and the rest of my life would be influenced by that connection”. These lines from “Australia 1970”

I praise the scoring drought, the flying dust
the drying creek, the furious animal,
that they oppose us still;
that we are ruined by the thing we kill.
 
"In The Two Faces" (1955) she took Hiroshima as an example of man's power to destroy even the cycles of nature. These lines from “Notes at Edge”…

Rhyme, my old cymbal, I don't clash you as often, or trust your old promises music and unison. I used to love Keats, Blake; now I try haiku for its honed brevities, its inclusive silences.

Last few days I have been reading and re-reading some of the poems and essay she wrote (as also blogs of her admirers), I think she was incredible and so wrote this poem for her endearing memory.

Role play

Uncertain discordant echoes, chaotic new path,

languid past diminishing like shadows in flickering candles.

Conceded space encroached by strangers

who speak idiom

I find difficult to understand.

These days every thought seems to be slipping

into abyss so deep

I cannot retrieve.

Is it loss of words, the language?

An old woman from past once said

alphabets don’t construct words

it is the thoughts

(a critique on western model of development: it is not what you build but thoughts behind the building)

White-breasted waterhens can walk on water !!

White-breasted waterhens are found across south Asia from India and Sri Lanka to south China and Indonesia. They have dark upperparts, white face and underparts, with yellow bill, thin long legs with very long toes. It moves tail feathers up and down. Stepping tenderly from one lotus leaf to another as it forages for food is a sight to watch, seems as if it is walking on water. Its body is adapted for this: long toes helps in distributing its already light frame.

A very common bird found wherever water bodies have thick vegetation cover. Being highly territorial it is a vocal and quarrelsome bird. Their constantly flicking tails and inquisitive suspicious nature make them very interesting birds to observe; highly vigilant they are easily alarmed and run into undergrowth. They nest in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation. White-breasted waterhens are often seen out in the open as it feeds on insects, mollusca, small fishes, grain. They have adapted well to human activity and are not endangered. In north India they are called Dawak or Dahak (stamp hereby from Australia).

In this context I thought it would be pertinent to discuss about some great guys from Poland: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 - 1939) also known as "Witkacy", wrote the play The Waterhen (the reason why he finds himself in this blog!!). When Soviet troops invaded Poland he killed himself as a protest. Witkacy tried to divest the theatre of his time of the bothersome naturalism that he felt was squelching its true nature. He believed in connecting audiences with a communal and individual "metaphysical feeling", that all the great works of art of the past were based upon this principle but that modern creators, as a result of their quest for the perfect reproduction of reality, had lost sight of it. He tried to bring in the pure form that Stanislavsky influenced theatre of the early 20th Century had been trying to keep out.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) an internationally renowned Polish theatre personality was inspired by Witkacy and stage produced many of his plays including The Waterhen. Kantor was known for experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors. His most renowned work was Dead Class (Andrzej Wajda a renowned Polish director made a movie on it). Czesław Miłosz framed his argument in The Captive Mind around a discussion of Witkiewicz's novel, Insatiability.

The Captive Mind has been described as one of the finest studies of the behavior of intellectuals under a repressive regime. Miłosz observed that those who became dissidents were not necessarily those with the strongest minds, but rather those with the weakest stomachs; the mind can rationalize anything, he said, but the stomach can take only so much. (I like that logic!!!!). One of the basic ideas put forward in Czeslaw Milosz's extraordinary book is that even the best-informed Westerners in reality know nothing about what goes on behind the Iron Curtain. They are fundamentally ignorant, not because of lack of factual data but due to failure of imagination. Milosz (who also happened to be Nobel laureate in literature-1980) writes in “My Intention,” the opening essay of To Begin Where I Am “I have written on various subjects, and not, for the most part, as I would have wished. Nor will I realize my long-standing intention this time. But I am always aware that what I want is impossible to achieve. I would need the ability to communicate my full amazement at “being here” in one unattainable sentence which would simultaneously transmit the smell and texture of my skin, everything stored in my memory, and all I now assent to, dissent from.”

These lines from the poem Child of Europe:

The laughter born of the love of truth

Is now the laughter of the enemies of the people.

Gone is the age of satire. We no longer need mock.

The sensible monarch with false courtly phrases.

Stern as befits the servants of a cause,

We will permit ourselves sycophantic humor.

Tight-lipped, guided by reasons only

Cautiously let us step into the era of the unchained fire.

Darter: the hug me bird

Darters are large sized slender bird that can be found sitting next to water body with its wing spread as if to hug someone. In reality these birds like their closer cousins cormorants don’t produce oil that water proof their feathers and so has to dry their wings constantly, so much so darters found in America migrate to get bright sun. The reason for lack of waterproof feathers is that like most birds they are light and have to increase their weight, waterlogged feathers allows it to dive easily and helps faster underwater movement. However, once they emerge from the water, they need to dry themselves. They also squeeze their feathers through their bill to remove excess water and repel water with oil from their enlarged preen gland at the base of the tail. It has great difficulty getting off the water if it attempts to fly while its wings are wet and takes off by flapping vigorously. Darters are widespread without being common. They inhabit either fresh or brackish water and can be found in lakes, rivers, marshes, swamps, estuaries, bays, lagoons and mangrove swamps. It prefers tree trunks, branches, stumps or posts fringing the water, for resting and drying its wings.

Darters got their name as they use long (about twice the length of the head) sharply pointed bill to spear or thrust prey when they dive, the fish is pierced from underneath, brought to the surface where it is flicked into the air and then swallowed head first. Smaller items are eaten underwater and large items carried to a convenient perch and then swallowed. Darters are also known to spread their wings and tail underwater to lure fish into the shade underneath, before spearing them. They are also referred to as snake bird as they have snakelike head and a very long curved neck, and often swims with only the neck above water, with side to side movement like a snake ready to strike. They have short webbed feet making them excellent swimmers, submerging without even a ripple (10 on 10 effort in Olympics!!) their eyes are set in the beaks for efficient underwater hunting. While its gait is clumsy on land, it can soar gracefully to great heights on thermals, soaring on motionless wings, it makes cross-shaped silhouette when flying giving an impression of a glider.

These birds belong to the family Anhingidae. In south Asia the commonly found darter is refered to as Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster). There are four living species. The word "anhinga" comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. The stamp posted herein is from Liberia (President of liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first elected female head of state), the painting of darter is from Audubon collection.

I came across these lines by Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world,
but when you're finished,
you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird...
So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing - that's what counts.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

How precise!!. Feynman was an American theoretical physicist who was widely regarded as the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field in the post-World War II era. He was one of the celebrated and revered scientists of modern times, he was multifaceted and had interest in many fields. Feynman remade quantum electrodynamics—the theory of the interaction between light and matter. The problem-solving tools that he invented—including pictorial representations of particle interactions known as Feynman diagrams—permeated many areas of theoretical Physics in the second half of the 20th century. Feynman invented a theory of “partons,” or hypothetical hard particles inside the nucleus of the atom, that helped lead to the modern understanding of quarks.

In his memoir Feynman mentions the reason for being in the Manhattan project. He says he felt the possibility of Nazi Germany developing the bomb before the Allies was a compelling reason to help with its development for the U.S. However, he goes on to say that it was an error on his part not to reconsider the situation when Germany was defeated. Feynman also talks about his worries in the atomic bomb age, feeling for some considerable time that there was a high risk that the bomb would be used again soon so that it was pointless to build for the future. Later he describes this period as a 'depression'. (all inputs taken from Net).

Only the righteous see the kingfisher

One can understand why this is a Irish folk saying (recorded in Richard Mabey’s Birds Britannica) since the most common sighting would be of a small, vivid glint of electric blue darting low across a lake or river and by the time you can say "Look there! A Kingfisher!" it’s gone. Some even call it the “Flying Jewel”. Plumage shining in metallic blue and turquoise, its orange-chestnut head and breast, with the white spot on the throat and its spectacular hunting behavior makes it really a precious bird. When I see this bird my mind talks about Darwin my heart thanks God!!.

Common kingfisher (the pic above taken at Karanja lake Mysuru) is a sparrow-sized bird with typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long sharp massive pointed bills. Kingfishers are chunky birds, they have short necks and large heads and stubby tails. Their bodies are short and plump, and legs and feet are small, a shape that helps them diving into the water. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to pursue its prey under water (I happen to see a program in National Geo. wherein they focused this ability of kingfisher, they did it brilliantly. Every time I watch these programs I am amazed). The flight of the Kingfisher is fast, direct and usually low over water. Its color and brevity always leave an impression. There are 86 species of kingfishers and are found all around the world except polar regions and some oceanic islands. Most species live in the eastern hemisphere, especially in southeast Asia.

Kingfishers range in size from the tiny African dwarf kingfisher, 10 cm long, to the laughing kookaburra of Australia (known for its laughing call), 46 cm long. In India three species are generally seen: White breasted, Pied and Common. The Common kingfisher is smallest and less shy. It is often seen perched on a stick or branch overlooking a ditch or pool watching intently for fish (occasionally hovering above the water's surface), bill pointing down as it searches for prey. It bobs its head when food is detected to gauge the distance, and plunges steeply down, two seconds later it emerges, clutching a prize in its beak and stuns the fish by beating it against the perch before swallowing it.

Kingfishers are highly territorial, and so are always found solitary. They are a vulnerable to habitat degradation through pollution or unsympathetic management of watercourses. They are seriously affected by build-up of chemicals, and river pollution by industrial and agricultural products. The presence of this bird therefore is an indication on not only the standard of water but general ecosystem. They nest in tunnels in earth banks (forest or wood kingfishers may live far from water), therefore concrete water banks in cities do create nesting problems, city authorities can create artificial nests or spaces.

There is a medieval folk tale in Europe that kingfishers were originally plain grey bird it acquired its present bright colors by flying towards the sun on its liberation from Noah's ark, its upper surface assumed the hue of the sky. Phrase Halcyon Days- days of idyllic happiness or prosperity, Halcyon came from the Greek word for kingfisher. It is often considered a bearer of luck and augmenter of money, and also seems to be of importance as a weather prophet. Kingfishers are probably most popular birds when it comes to stamps and almost all countries around the world have come out with stamp on Kingfishers (the stamp posted here is from Luxemburg). The painting herein is by none other than Von Gogh (painted in 1886).

These few lines taken from a poem by Mary Oliver titled The Kingfisher

The kingfisher rises out of the black wave
like a blue flower, in his beak
he carries a silver leaf. I think this is
the prettiest world--so long as you don't mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your
whole life that doesn't have its splash of happiness?

As I was going through these I found that Mary Oliver is an incredible woman. She is a Pulitzer Prize (1984) wining American poet, influenced by both Whitman and Thoreau, and is known for her clear and poignant observation of natural world. Oliver has also been compared to Emily Dickinson, with whom she shares an affinity for solitude and interior monologues. I read many of her poems the other day and think she is amazing (I pity myself for not reading her much earlier). Also her liking for Whitman, Thoreau and Dickinson makes her endearing. She loves the outdoors, in the nature. Says Oliver “Whenever I would leave home, I would say ‘I’m going in,’ whenever I would go back in the house, I would say ‘I’m going out.’!!”. Now that is what I love about people. She asks this question “Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” . There are some writings that become very personal the moment you read Mary Oliver’s poem The Journey…

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Red whiskered bulbul: the ecstatic little bird

Red-whiskered Bulbul is a member of the bulbul family, are short-necked slender passerines is a common Asian specie from Pakistan and India to southeast Asia and China (incidentally this bird is absent in Sri Lanka). It has been introduced to different parts of the world as cage bird. There are approximately 185 species in this genus (red vent bulbul is another popularly found bird in india). The Red-whiskered Bulbul was one of the many species originally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in his Systema Naturae.

Red-whiskered Bulbul’s characteristics are its pointed conspicuous black crest, red whiskers (leading to itsname) red vent, sharp beak curved at the tip, thick black stripe running from its beak to neckline. The tails are long and the wings short and rounded. This bird like cuckoo you hear first before spotting, they are melodiuos unabashed singers. The flight is bouncing, it gives an impression of a bird that is immensely happy with life, the attitude is infectious (the reason why watching birds can be an ecstatic experience). It prefers wooden localities (and hence commonly found in hills) with bushes and shrubs, and are found next to human habitats. They are easily tamed and are popular as a cage bird. They are so popular that many kids are named bulbul.

Bulbuls feed mainly on fruits, berries, insects and sometimes do crop damage. In Hawaii these escaped caged birds are banned they have been accused of destroying orchid plantations because of bud and flower damage as also spreading the seeds of invasive plants.

Bulbuls are non migratory birds, they are known for their songs, the reason why it was taken to different parts of the world as caged birds. In Middle East they even find mention in Persian poetry. Last but not the least like stilts they too feign injury to distract predators from the nest.

The pic taken from hills of Kutta (Western Ghats), it is a small town on the Karnataka-Kerala border. This place was a pleasant surprise, and strongly suggested to bird watchers. Few Kms of morning walk and I saw atleast 30 species of birds (including fan tailed drango). Unfortunately the pics didn’t come out properly except the red whisker as they are tolerant to humans. I guess I might take few more years to get better lens, anyway I shouldn’t be complaining and consider myself fortunate to have atleast this camera.

Carl Linnaeus: poet who happened to become a naturalist

I recall learning about Linnaeus in school, it is only recently I came to know that he was an amazing man. Linnaeus was one of the greatest and inspiring man of his time. Rousseau wrote: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth". Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly. Clearly that is an amazing credential. Linnaeus put the binomial nomenclature in place. This was a major achievement since it put all known species (and elements) in a systematic way, helped in easy classification and study. It was brilliant (in school it was miserable experience trying to mug these!!). He is rightly considered as father of modern taxonomy, creating a universal language. And it is this incredible guy who gave us the name homo sapiens..

Behold the Brahminy Kite

Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus) are one handsome looking raptor, marble white and chestnut colored lower half. They are found next to water bodies and coastal regions. They have powerful talons with which they scoop the prey. These are non migratory birds, very tolerant to humans and so can be found in abundance in coastal towns and wetlands, marshy fields. Commonly found in Asia and Australia they look similar to white-bellied eagle (but eagles are bigger in size, and white bellied are darker coloured) A characteristic distinguisher of Brahminy kites from other Kites is that it has round tail (more like a hawk) unlike forked tail common among kites.

In Hindu mythology, this kite referred to as the ‘king of birds’: the Garuda. The celestial carrier or vahana of Lord Vishnu and hence given the status of a deity by the religious scriptures and is worshipped. I read in the Net that the origin of name Brahminy is from Brahmin. In Hindi it is referred to as brahminy cheel while in Tamil, Malayalam they are Krishna parunthu, in Kannada Garuda. In ancient India heroes who died heroic death were sometimes immortalized as garudas. This bird also has a sacred reference in Buddhism too. The emblem of Jakarta (Indonesia) is Brahminy kite, even the airline is named Garuda airlines. Incidentally Brahminy kite is endangered specie in Indonesia. In recent times a cigarette company has instigated demand for this hapless bird as pets, this I read in the Net: Femke Haas, founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, says a recent cigarette advertisement sparked local demand for the Brahminy Kite. “There is a big commercial, and they are using this bird as their icon, and now many birds are being sought by private pet owners because they think it’s cool to have these birds, since it’s an icon for this big cigarette company. And actually you see this all over Jakarta and all over Indonesia, big pictures of this bird.”

Pigeon: the city bird

Pigeons and doves include some 300 species of birds. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species with pointed tails and "pigeon" for larger ones. The young doves and pigeons are called "squabs". Unlike most other birds doves and pigeons produce "crop milk", which is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young. The nestling obtains this “milk” by poking its bill down the parent’s throat.

The largest species are the crowned pigeons of New Guinea, which are nearly turkey-sized. The Common Ground Dove is among the smallest species in the family. This family is a highly coherent group with no members showing obvious links with other bird families, or vice versa.

Feral pigeons, also called city doves, city pigeons or street pigeons, are derived from domestic pigeons that have returned to the wild and have become adapted to life and are abundant in towns and cities all over the world. These show a variety of plumages, although some have the blue barred pattern like the pure Rock Pigeon does. The scarcity of the pure wild species is partly due to interbreeding with feral birds. Wild Rock Pigeons are pale grey with two black bars on each wing, domestic and feral pigeons are very variable in color and pattern. Rock Pigeons have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon. As well as pets, domesticated pigeons were utilized as homing pigeons and carrier pigeons, and so-called war pigeons- well known for their ability to find their way home from long distances therefore used for thousands of years to carry brief written messages. Pigeons have been tamed since at least 3000 BC.

Pigeons feed on the ground in flocks or individually. They roost together in buildings or on walls or statues. There is an interesting fact on pigeons when drinking most birds take small sips and tilt their heads backwards to swallow the water, pigeons are able to dip their specialized bills through which they can suck up water steadily and drink continuously without having to tilt their heads back. Did you know that Dodo- the extinct bird- is classified under the same family (Columbidae- subfamily Raphinae) as pigeons?. Dodo was a pigeon!!!.

While many species of pigeons have benefited from human activities (and even considered nuisance in cities, they put spikes to avoid them) many other species have declined in numbers and some have become threatened or even succumbed to extinction. 10 species have become extinct since 1600. Around 59 species of pigeon and dove are threatened with extinction today, this is 19% of all species. Most of these are tropical and live on islands. The Passenger Pigeon is an example of extinct bird that was not island specie (the painting of passenger bird from Whitman collection).

In the Old Testament in the Bible, Noah sends out a dove after the flood. In the New Testament a dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. In Islam, doves and the pigeon clan in general are respected and favored because they are believed to have assisted the prophet of Islam, Muhammad in distracting his enemies outside the cave of Thaw'r in the great Hijra. According to the Tanakh (Jewish holy book), doves are kosher, and they are the only birds that may be used for a korban. White pigeons in the contemporary world are considered as symbol of peace. In Hindi it is called kabutar, Malayalam pravu.

I came across this remarkable man who had done more study on pigeon than anybody else. Charles Otis Whitman (18

42–1910) was an American zoologist author of numerous research studies. At the age of 50 he took up pigeons for his research. Why pigeons? He said that he kept pigeons as a boy, and was fascinated by them and watched them by the hour. But it was more than that. He felt that there was a fallacy in Darwin's theory of randomness in evolution, and that by making a broader study of many species of pigeons and doves -- a broader study than Darwin's -- he might demonstrate new evolutionary truths, even directional change. Financed by Whitman himself the birds were not kept at the Zoology Laboratory. "His house was surrounded by pigeon cotes, and he always had some birds under observation indoors, so that the cooing of doves was for years a dominant sound in his house. He took care of the birds for the most part himself, though he usually had the assistance of one or two maids”. He thus actually lived with his birds constantly and very rarely was absent from them even for a single day. He made observations and kept notes on all aspects of the life and behavior of each species, as well as of such hybrids as he was able to produce. He always had one Japanese artist at work continuously drawing pigeons (incidentally Whitman is credited to have introduced modern zoological studies to Japan). In the latter part of his life the collection comprised some 550 individuals representing about thirty species.

At the University of Chicago he selected and taught only those pursuing advanced research. Forty-four of these obtained the doctor degree under his direction, many of them to become famous biologists in turn. Seven of them used pigeons and doves for their research: (1) Michael F. Guyer, spermatogenesis; (2) Eugene H. Harper, fertilization of the egg; (3) Mary Blount, early embryology; (4) John T. Patterson, later embryology; (5) Oscar Riddle, feather growth, endocrinology, biochemistry; (6) Wallace Craig, Behavior; (7) George W. Bertelmez, embryology. In addition to these, Whitman influenced a number of other investigators to pay attention to pigeons. These include R. W. Shufeldt in osteology; R. M. Strong, feather structure; T. H. Morgan, heredity and Harvey A. Carr, Behavior.

Whitman was influential to the founding of classical ethology. A dedicated educator he made major contributions in the areas of evolution and embryology of worms, comparative anatomy, heredity, and animal behavior. Modern research discoveries in biology and genetics suggest that he had some prophetic insight. Here then was a great figure in the history of pigeon biology, a man to whom we owe even more respect than he is generally accorded.

I came a blog that titles itself as People for Pigeons and states "People for Pigeons is concerned with the protection and preservation of mankind's oldest domestic bird, the gentle and loyal pigeon. We support pro-pigeonism".