Why do pigeons nod their heads when they walk. Why do pigeons nod their heads when walking? Why does the dove shake its head

This issue has been raised more than once in various topics, and opinions differ. Of course, a lot depends on what exactly the bird is sick with.
Here I was repeatedly accused that I was treating a bird for some unknown reason. First, they say, you need to pass tests, do a bacterial culture with sensitivity to antibiotics, and only then prescribe treatment.
I believe that all the main pigeon sores boil down to three main infections: salmonellosis - mycoplasmosis on the one hand, psittacosis on the other and viruses on the third. Why am I grouping them up like that? According to the principles of treatment. An antibiotic that affects salmonellosis also successfully fights mycoplasmosis, colibacillosis and a number of other infections. Ornithosis does not react to this rubbish, as well as hemophillosis, as it turned out. But both are quite sensitive to tetracyclines. Viruses are generally not treated in any way, all treatment is aimed at maintaining the body's defenses, as well as suppressing secondary infections. You can not talk about coccidiosis and trichomoniasis, they have rather characteristic symptoms and specific treatment.
Thus, when a disease occurs, the diagnosis can be made by eye and treated with any one group of drugs. It is impossible to treat everything at once, the same enrofloxacin (Baytril, Hipralon, Enroflon) cannot be given together with tetracycline antibiotics. And there are no universal antibiotics.

It is believed that it is better not to treat with antibiotics at all. Like, the bird's body must cope with the disease itself. I think this is nonsense. If such a number still passes with the virus, then the bacteria by themselves will not leave the body, and if the bird does not die, the disease will simply turn into a chronic form.
It is a little easier with viruses, even if the bird gets sick, it often remains a virus carrier and can infect others, but with the complete infection of the entire hunt, birds that are susceptible to this virus gradually do not remain.
There is also an opinion that the use of antibiotics changes the gneotype of the bird, from the treated pigeons either it is no longer possible to get offspring at all, or the offspring come out with deviations, genetic abnormalities. I will not argue, but I doubt that everything is that serious. In any case, quite healthy offspring emerge from recovered pigeons. Weakened and unviable offspring, susceptible to any diseases, are more often obtained due to illiterate breeding and poor poultry keeping.

Last year I started to spin a lot of birds, some died very quickly, others continue to spin until now, and still others have recovered. The ones that were skewered last year still look healthy, although the droppings are as thin and green as everyone else's. Those that did not turn, do not turn now. Some of their descendants are twirling, others have no signs yet. Moreover, this year the nature of nervous disorders is somewhat different. In total, I distinguish between three versions of the swivel.
The most harmless is when the pigeon first tilts its head to its side, as if thinking about something or looking at the sky, then, with the development of the disease, the head bows more and more until it completely touches the back of the floor. I believe that this type of wiggle is characteristic of Newcastle disease. With this type of disease, the bird can eat itself if it is in a calm environment. When excited, the pigeon starts rolling on the floor through the wing.
The second option, it seems to me, more often corresponds to salmonellosis, with this type of violation the pigeon throws its head back and shakes it from side to side. The bird cannot feed on its own, it walks in circles, swaying, with strong excitement, it rolls back over the tail. Pigeons rarely recover from this type of whirligig. However, I have a dove who has fully recovered and now looks completely healthy, before the outbreak of this year she flew with everyone in the flock.
The third type is similar to the previous one, the pigeon shakes its head from side to side, but does not throw its head back, which allows it to feed at least somehow. Although it is difficult for the bird to concentrate on the feeder, it can still receive some feed. With this type, a staggering gait is also characteristic, as well as walking in zigzags and sometimes in a circle. But the pigeon, when excited, does not roll on the floor, however, while running away, it often stumbles and falls forward. I believe that this type of whirligig accompanies psittacosis. I don’t know what the prognosis for recovery is, I faced this type for the first time this year.
In addition, there are mixed options, when the pigeon twists its neck down, like in a Newcastle, while also shaking it from side to side. Sometimes one type flows smoothly into another.

I first encountered Newcastle disease as a teenager. Rather, the fact that it was precisely Newcastle disease, I suggested myself, was not confirmed by veterinarians. In general, communication with veterinarians even then aroused distrust in me and a negative attitude towards them, which only strengthened over time. Among other things, veterinarians do not consider it necessary to explain anything to clients, they prescribe what drugs are not clear, without explaining what is the meaning of the drug's action. At that time, they advised me not to treat the pigeons with anything, in no case give antibiotics, only give them vitamins and put them in the dark. The meaning of all this I understood only later, when I gathered a sufficient amount of information from various sources, the veterinarians refused to explain to me why and why it was necessary to do this. And this is what washed away - the usual "twist", it is a virus. There are no specific drugs against viruses, therefore it is pointless to treat, antibiotics will not give anything. Vitamins are aimed at maintaining the vitality of the body so that it can fight the disease itself, and a darkened room is required so that the bird feels calm, does not worry. Bright lights and loud sounds cause seizures in birds.
At that time I only fed one with vitamins, and he died, and I fed the other bird with tetracycline, and she recovered completely.

In the literature, the usually sick bird is advised to kill, and to treat the rest of the flock. This makes a certain sense, given the high cost of treatment and the likelihood of the transition of the disease into an incurable chronic stage. But if the bird is valuable in terms of breeding, I would still heal. Although, of course, descendants will surely also get sick from a sick bird. It is more profitable to leave a bird to the tribe, which at the height of the epidemic continued to remain clinically healthy. From these pigeons, most of the offspring can just as easily transfer this disease in the future.

But back to our rams. As I mentioned above, various people have repeatedly told me that first you need to get tested, and only then, with a complete diagnosis, select treatment in accordance with the recommendations. Finally, I packed up and handed in the litter for analysis. As it turned out, it is pointless to be tested for coccidiosis, eimeria (coccidia) are always present in the intestines of a bird, these are representatives of the usual intestinal microflora. The disease is caused either by coccidia of a certain type, and no analysis is made to the type, or, as an option, the same harmless coccidia that begin to multiply beyond measure when certain conditions occur. I am more inclined to the first version, since I observed precisely the infection with coccidia in quarantined pigeons. If these were ordinary coccidia, healthy pigeons would not get infected.
One pigeon was found in the droppings of candida, a yeast-like fungus that causes candidiasis (thrush). Now it turns out that Candida also belongs to the common types of microflora of the digestive system of pigeons, and the disease begins in weakened birds, especially after long-term treatment with antibiotics, which suppress the rest of the microflora. The mentioned pigeon had no signs of candidiasis.
Salmonella was not found in any of the samples, although before that I thought that it was salmonella that was the problem for birds. We lost the bacterial culture in the laboratory and offered to call back in a week. Maybe he would have been found, as I was assured the last time when I handed over the corpses, since everything is entered into their computer, but by that time it was no longer relevant, the pigeon fell.

Of all the diseases known to me, only mycoplasmosis remained under suspicion, but it is not diagnosed by droppings. I was advised to bring the corpse, and the diagnosis is 100% based on the corpse.

This time I turned in two corpses. The first was the Uzbek fighting kui. He sat with other males on a cabinet in the room. He had no obvious symptoms of the disease, but from some time on I began to notice that he became sad, sits giggling. When I took him in my hands, it turned out that he had lost a lot of weight. I put him in a cage, but his condition kept getting worse, the droppings took on a yellowish color, this was the case with Zlota. By the time of death, the bird was already severely emaciated, although the trough was full of food.
By the way, his son Tasman also died recently. He died quite suddenly, since he had no obvious signs of illness, he was well-fed. In recent days, he was cackling, but then all the pigeons were sitting cuddly, the weather was very uncomfortable.

The second corpse belonged to a bare-footed Hungarian born in this year. The pigeon was strong, it flew well. This year, my epidemic went in two stages, at first many of them began to watery eyes. I added nifulin to the feed for a week, and all the symptoms disappeared, the bird droppings returned to normal. I started chasing them again. About a week later, this grizzly and half-tippler sharply reduced their flying abilities, the pigeons threw themselves from a height, fell onto the balcony and ran into the dovecote with a bullet, in obvious fear. I attributed this behavior to a possible meeting with a predator the day before. Although I have not seen predators, this does not mean that they are not and were not. In any case, the sisari became nervous again in the fall.
Then the half-tippler began to fly again, but the grizzly one began to diligently avoid even leaving the dovecote. At the same time, he looked quite healthy, I had no suspicions until one day, when I kicked everyone out and the pigeons flew as usual, and this one remained sitting and looked clearly not in the best way. I caught him, put him in a separate cage, began to treat him with teracycline. But the symptoms grew catastrophically, already on the second day the pigeon was sitting with a strangely elongated neck and a lowered head, its eyes were slightly narrowed. I stopped giving medication, fearing it might be a reaction to an antibiotic. For three more days the pigeon sat, getting worse and worse, and when he died, I took him to the center of molecular diagnostics. In fact, it was necessary to kill him the day before and hand him over together with the Uzbek. And there would be no need to travel a second time, and the corpse would be fresher.
The Hungarian had severe diarrhea with herbs, the same began in all other Hungarians the very next day after he was deposited. Then some developed symptoms of a whirligig. The half-drummer fell ill very quickly, one day she looked sad, on the second day I thought that she should have been jailed, the first signs of a disorder of the nervous system appeared, on the third day I jailed her with obvious signs of an incipient whirligig, on the fourth day I found her dead with a strong with the head turned back onto the back.

Mindful of the words of my acquaintances, who advised to start treatment only after receiving the test results, I soldered the bird only with vitamins and immunomodulators. I handed over the corpses on November 12 and 13, and today I found out the result by phone. I'm going to pay a thousand extra for additional studies (this was discussed initially, since according to the autopsy results, pathologists may prescribe additional tests for possible pathogens that may be suspected), although in fact there is no point. I do not literally remember what was written in the results, but for both corpses the results were approximately the same: the bird died from prolonged intoxication. Salmonella, mycoplasma, other pathogenic bacteria, aspergillus and other pathogenic fungi were not detected.

In general, the birds died from melancholy. The question is, what to do now? To cure or not to cure? And from what to treat, and, therefore, and what to treat? No test results, the bird died for some reason.

What can I say about this? More than ten days have passed since the onset of the disease. During this time, many more birds died and fell ill. Was it worth waiting for the test results and not taking any action? Despite the fact that the analysis did not show anything, I think it was still necessary to start antibiotic treatment, at least some chance that not all of the bird would get sick, and the one that got sick could have endured the disease in an easier form. Yes, there remains the possibility that this is still a virus, and a virus that has not sat down on top of a bacterial infection, but an evil virus in itself. But when a viral infection occurs, antibiotics, nevertheless, are not harmful to use, at least to suppress secondary infections.

How often many of us have to see pigeons in our lives, and at the same time, how little we know about them. All the known information about our curly neighbors most often comes down to the fact that they eat seeds and various cereals (who will pour what), do not fly away for the winter and like to shit from the rooftops. We have no time, and no need, to learn more - we think. Meanwhile, the world of even the most familiar animals for us can be very exciting.

Why do pigeons nod their heads while walking is a question that each of us has probably asked ourselves at least once. But for many, he, along with other questions about the life of these birds, still remains a mystery. For those who nevertheless decided to become a little closer to our feathered neighbors, this little story was created. In particular, let's try to figure out why pigeons have such a funny gait.

General information about pigeons

The weight of an adult pigeon usually ranges from 200 to 650 g. Most often on the streets we see rock pigeons, which are one of 35 existing species. This genus of birds can be found in countries located on three continents of the earth: Africa, Eurasia and Australia. The life of a wild pigeon usually does not last more than 5 years. In captivity, they live 2-3 times longer, in rare cases even reaching 35 years.

Since people have learned to create new breeds of pigeons, more than 800 of them have been bred. Of these, about 200 are in Russia. The peculiarity of these birds is known to fly to their native nests, even being hundreds of kilometers away. They can reach speeds of up to 100 km / h. The ancient Greeks, Persians, Romans, Jews and Egyptians learned how to transmit various news through them. In many countries, pigeon mail operated officially, it was especially actively used during the war.

Strange pigeon gait

We are so accustomed to these feathered creatures that either we do not notice them at all, or everything in their behavior seems to us quite ordinary and explainable. But sometimes watching pigeons in the park or at the bus stop can give us some questions.

For example, why do pigeons nod their heads when walking? This strange gait seems very uncomfortable, it seems that it is given to them with great difficulty. But this is only at first glance. In fact, if they were created with the ability to move in this way, then it was necessary. In nature, nothing happens in vain.

Explanations of the pigeon gait

There are many hypotheses as to why pigeons nod their heads when walking. Some believe that in fact the nodding effect is created visually, but in fact the bird does not move it, moving only its body. The reason for the peculiarity of the pigeon gait is sometimes explained by the need to maintain body balance. For this purpose, small birds usually jump, and large ones waddle.

Someone believes that the structure of the pigeon, or rather the location of its eyes, is the cause of this phenomenon. The fact is that the bird's eyes are set on the sides of the head, and therefore it has an And just in order to see the whole picture in front of it at once, it makes a sharp nod when walking.

What did one experiment show?

In 1976, a scientist set up a very interesting experiment with pigeons. He placed the bird in a cube, where he installed a special treadmill so that the pigeon would not have the opportunity to get off it. The purpose of this experiment was to test whether the bird would nod its head in such an environment.

As it turned out, in such conditions the birds stop nodding their heads. Observing a pigeon running on a treadmill led the scientist to conclude that the nod was necessary to stabilize the image. In the process of running on a treadmill that moved with the pigeon, the need to stabilize the visible environment disappeared. According to this study, the best explanation for this question is how the pigeons see. By the way, if you blindfold a pigeon, it will also stop nodding while taking a step.

Unique pigeon vision

The difference between pigeon vision and human vision is that a person perceives the movements of objects, seeing 24 frames per second, and a pigeon needs to see as many as 75 frames for this. Therefore, they perceive everything that happens around them as separate pictures, which means that they notice an object approaching them at the last moment.

And although in this the vision of a pigeon is inferior to that of a human, it has clear advantages. None of us can boast of the ability to see as far as these birds. Just imagine, a pigeon is able to see an object at a distance of three kilometers. Appreciating this advantage, the United States even used their help in search and rescue operations.

How much we still do not know about our seemingly familiar environment. We see pigeons so often and know so little about them. Knowing why pigeons nod their heads when walking, it will be much more interesting to observe these birds. Now you can try to imagine what the world looks like in their eyes and get a little closer to them. Let's notice the world around us, because it is very interesting and beautiful.

Kira Stoletova

Few people know why pigeons nod their heads when walking. There are a lot of oddities and uniqueness in our life, which are rather difficult to explain. For example, not all the characteristics of animals can be understood. And one of the still unexplained is why doves nod their heads while walking.

History of appearance

In nature, pigeons settle in the mountains, on the seashore and rivers, but they also adapt well to life in our cities, since the houses and their structure, especially the "pockets" above the roofs, are very similar to their usual living conditions. They live for a relatively short time - 3-6 years.

They say that once a specimen was found that lived for more than 40 years. The species is characterized by speed and intelligence. Such individuals can reach speeds of up to 190 km / h, although this is difficult to do in the city, because there are wires and tall buildings everywhere.

Possible reasons for this "oddity"

The pigeon has lived for several centuries on our land and not all the features of this species are clear to us. One of them - why do pigeons nod their heads with a characteristic movement. Probably, any person very often drew attention to the fact that when birds move, they begin to move their heads especially quickly.

In fact, there are several interpretations of this habit. They are mostly based on human observation and scientific assumptions. While not all of these theories are true, there are a few that are worthwhile. The main thing is to remember that a pigeon moves its head only when it walks. When a pigeon stands still, he does not move it, and there are explanations for this.

The first theory

One of the first explanations is very musical. They say that pigeons have a very delicate musical sense, which is why when they walk, they feel the rhythm of their steps and nod unintentionally to the beat.

It is believed that if you turn on music to a bird, you can notice an unusual reaction of the pigeon: it begins to look for the source of the noise and sometimes shake its head back and forth. Also, the winged ones begin to move very actively and walk from side to side.

Opinions are divided on this score.

1. Some believe that the pigeon just begins to worry and worry, so it behaves this way.
2. Others are sure that the dove begins to dance to the music.

What other explanations are there

The second explanation is based on the fact that the pigeon nods when walking precisely because of the structure of its body. It is an established fact that these birds walk on two legs. If a person uses his arms for balance, swinging them from side to side, then the kochuga shakes his head back and forth for the same purpose. For example, eagles nod their heads for balance, but this is not so striking, because they move very imposingly, calmly and evenly.

This theory also has its flaws. For example, when the birdie stands, it perfectly keeps its balance, the pigeon's legs are relatively strong, and the spread fingers with nails perfectly support the bird.

Anatomy is to blame

The third interpretation is tied to the anatomy of pigeons. Moreover, experts are sure that this particular theory is the reason for such a "strange" behavior of the birds. Due to the fact that the pigeon's eye is built in such a way that when walking it simply cannot move from side to side, the winged individual moves its entire head in order to be able to see the whole picture of the world. To understand where danger might lie, the bird needs to move its head.

An experiment was conducted with birds. For example, a pigeon was placed on a jogging track, where it was taught to walk. As it turned out, this anomaly has two sides.

A selection from the Internet.

It is important for birds to see movement against the background of static objects. If their head is moving, then there is no static background = the probability of missing something deadly interesting in the process of movement is very high. Therefore, birds such as a pigeon at each step leave their heads "in the old place", and then jerkily move them to a new one, thus minimizing the time during which they observe the blurred background.
My imha.

They have no hands, so they have to shake their heads.

Just the same muscle moves the head and leg - move the pigeon's paw - its head will twitch.
It's simple.

The neck is developed so that there is no arthrosis)

And the frost of the saddle on the street is here and shake the Schaub not to freeze))))

They do knuts ktuts ktuts

Food is pushed out of the goiter

Their eyes are fixed and they turn their heads to change the point of view.

They have a spring-loaded neck mechanism

They bend their heads so that the hooligans do not hit with a slingshot. An instinct developed by years of living in the city.

They are dancing

They like it so much

I remember that for focusing vision, like, in principle, a chicken

Always hungry and asking for food

For the same purpose for which you wave your arms - balance is maintained!

And the longest answer is: Why do pigeons nod their heads? At first, the question is, of course, puzzling. To be honest, I never even paid attention to pigeons nodding. But later, thinking about it, I remembered - yes, nodding, and very much even. Why is that?

From the point of view of the Russian language, pigeons can only nod their heads. Judge for yourself - they flap their wings, they walk with their legs, and they shake their tail. Moreover, other birds, animals, and even people nod their heads, and nothing else.

Okay, this is from the point of view of the Russian language. Let's talk about biology?

Each person at least once in his life fed pigeons in parks, squares, and simply in yards. A relaxing activity that does not require any special efforts - throw bread to yourself, and throw it. You can think about your own, talk on the phone, watch the child playing, or just admire the birds.

So that's it. Very funny doves nod their heads, begging for another piece of bread. And they also nod when another pigeon, or, more often, a sparrow, tries to take this piece away. They drive away, they say, mine, do not touch, go, look for your own.

Well, and of course, one cannot fail to consider such a beautiful ritual as the courting of a dove for a dove that attracts him. How he fluffs up his feathers, how proudly he nurses around - his chest is a wheel, his eyes are burning. Not a dove, but an eagle, no less! And how charmingly his lady of heart is "embarrassed", presses her head to her shoulder, or even hides it under her wing, how slyly she glances at her gentleman with one glance. And, of course, the dove nods its head, as if encouraging its chosen one, and persuades not to be embarrassed.

So why is the dove nodding its head? So we have identified the main reasons:

And yet the question remains open: why is it that the dove is waving its head when it is hitting?

There lived a young Dove named Gul in the city. He was lonely because, out of his own pride, he decided to fly away from his pack.
And then one day he sits alone on a branch of a tree that grew near a large house and watches his relatives from above.

They peck bread crumbs with their small flock on the ground and coo talking about something.
They walk and nod their heads to the sides.
And he thought:
- Can I really walk like they do? It is interesting to look at yourself from the outside. But apparently this is not possible!
How can you see yourself?
I live alone, and no one will tell me about it. He had been thinking about this all day.

Towards evening, he became so sad that he decided to return to the flock, it was very lonely to live alone. He alone was alone because of his pride. He was young and did not understand it yet.

He decided to fight his pride and join his pack, which he recently left. Taking offense at his proud girlfriend Gulya, who was there the favorite and the most beautiful of all. Because her head was tamed by a tuft of white feathers. Her tuft seduced the young pigeons of the flock.

The rumble flew unnoticed to them under the roof in the attic and sat down next to them. The birds, ruffled, slept, hiding their beaks in their feathers. Females slept in nests with their chicks, and males settled down nearby.

In the flock lived the old Pigeon leader, who was very respected in their flock. He saw him and asked:
- I see you've returned to us Buzz? Is the resentment gone?

- Got it!
He answered him.

- Well then, you are welcome! Sit next to me and sleep. In the morning we all fly to the watering place together!
The night has passed. In the morning, everyone saw the offender and immediately nodded their heads in joy.

The Old Dove flew up, and the whole flock rushed after him to a large puddle. Having drunk and gorged on bread crumbs that the inhabitants of the house regularly poured next to them, they cooed around the puddles and rejoiced in the sun.

An old pigeon stood guard nearby. He always drank and ate first, and then stood watch. Because the cat that lived in the basement of this house was not averse to feasting on a young pigeon. She often suddenly jumped out and chased them.

The rumble stood next to their leader, looked at his kinsmen and asked him:
- I see all the pigeons nod their heads while walking!
Why? I do not understand?
I probably also walk and nod my head. But I don’t notice it!

The leader of the pack answered him:
- Few people know why we doves nod their heads when walking. There are a lot of oddities and uniqueness in our life, which are rather difficult to explain, not all of our features can be understood. This one is still not clear.
I suppose the possible reasons for this "strangeness" is a fast gait. It lies in the fact that we move our head only when we walk. When we stand still, we do not move it; there are explanations for this.

There are many speculations and one of the first is very musical.
We pigeons have a very delicate musical flair, which is why, when we are walking, we feel the rhythm of steps and in time, unintentionally nodding, cooing at the same time.

Our pigeon family is easy to train. Therefore, our fellow artists often act as performers in the circus. Once I watched, when the arena was turned on, the Dove had an unusual reaction to the music, he began to shake his head back and forth, move very actively, walk from side to side, as if dancing and spinning in place.

- Is that all?

- No, of course, there is another explanation based on the fact that we Doves nod our heads when walking precisely because of the structure of our body and our anatomy is to blame for all this.

Our pigeons' eyes are built in such a way that when we walk, we simply cannot move them from side to side. That is why our winged individual moves his entire head in order to be able to see the complete picture of the world around us. This is in order to understand where danger may await us, so we need to move our heads.
Look, that pigeon takes one step and nods its head to inspect the entire territory.

- Or maybe the nod is our flirtation! Look how our Gulya walks and nods with her beautiful head with a tuft!
By this she attracts young pigeons and is sure that the most beautiful of all her friends!

- Yes, you are right, she is a beauty!

- Yes, you are right. Her grandmother was just as beautiful! I liked her too! But she flew away with another flock. We Doves can be called real travelers and invaders of the planet.
We travel with people, spreading all over the world. This is because people have managed to make a house Pigeon out of a street Pigeon.

In ancient times, we Doves were used to transmit messages over long distances. A letter was tied to the leg and released to the owner. Because any domestic Pigeon, accustomed to the place of its permanent residence, being introduced even at a very long distance from home, returns to its nest as soon as possible. But not all breeds of Pigeons are adapted to this, but only some special postal ones.
Pigeon mail was very popular before it was completely unnecessary.
- Why do we Pigeons always return home, despite all the obstacles?

“I don’t know why, but in modern science this ability is called“ homing ”- the instinct to return home.

At the moment, scientists cannot fully find an explanation for the mechanism that allows Pigeons to accurately determine the direction of flight, and from the many cities that fly by. Find the one he needs from thousands of similar houses. Define one window and find your own. Apparently, the Dove's brain is developed to such an extent that it can be called a natural computer.
Now in the world there is a private pigeon sports society. Many of our relatives take part in competitions.

- It turns out that people really need us? Do we nod our heads when walking in order to see well and flirt?

- It turns out Buzz that so!