{"id":8959,"date":"2010-12-31T13:30:38","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=8959"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:32:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:32:10","slug":"photo-du-jour-flocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/12\/31\/photo-du-jour-flocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo du Jour &#8211; Flocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"IMG_1421 by alanah.montreal, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/alanahmontreal\/5308311917\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5047\/5308311917_2e0dcd1301.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1421\" width=\"500\" height=\"380\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t love pigeons but I do like the way they move. I like the sound of beating wings and the way they circle about aimlessly, yet seem perfectly choreographed, swooping and spiraling as if of a single mind.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair Montreal&#8217;s pigeons probably have deeper roots here than many of the city&#8217;s human inhabitants as they all descended long ago from domesticated birds. In less flattering terms, there are no wild pigeons in the Americas, only feral ones.<\/p>\n<p>Some time ago, I came across a film called &#8220;Up on the Roof&#8221; about old men who raised pigeons on the roofs of Williamsburg in NYC for decades. It&#8217;s a collector&#8217;s hobby, where the trick is let your pigeons mingle with your neighbour&#8217;s and hope that a few of his birds will come down with your flock.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s definitely worth checking out the trailer which has a lovely soundtrack and some beautiful Brooklyn-sunset footage at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.creativearson.com\/upontheroof\/video.html\">Creative Arson<\/a> (click trailer). The documentary focuses on the tension that builds as the neighbourhood  is gentrified and &#8220;people just don&#8217;t even want you to go on the roofs,  never mind having pigeons on the roof,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A quick search didn&#8217;t turn up any information about domesticated pigeon flocks in Montreal. However, our city&#8217;s pigeons have contributed to the scientific literature on flocking behaviour, foraging, innovation and social learning among <em>Colomba livia<\/em>, though the research of <a href=\"http:\/\/biology.mcgill.ca\/faculty\/lefebvre\/\">Dr Louis Lefebvre<\/a> at McGill University.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their wee brains, 32 pigeons have been awarded <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dickin_Medal\">war medals<\/a>&#8230;now if only we could toilet-train them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t love pigeons but I do like the way they move. I like the sound of beating wings and the way they circle about aimlessly, yet seem perfectly choreographed, swooping and spiraling as if of a single mind. To be fair Montreal&#8217;s pigeons probably have deeper roots here than many of the city&#8217;s human<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/12\/31\/photo-du-jour-flocks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Photo du Jour &#8211; Flocks&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7834,7835],"tags":[748,114,3670,5919,377,125,52,5918],"class_list":["post-8959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-green-space","tag-americas","tag-animals","tag-collector","tag-louis-lefebvre","tag-mcgill-university","tag-montreal","tag-photo-du-jour","tag-up-on-the-roof"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Photo du Jour - Flocks - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/12\/31\/photo-du-jour-flocks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Photo du Jour - Flocks - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#8217;t love pigeons but I do like the way they move. I like the sound of beating wings and the way they circle about aimlessly, yet seem perfectly choreographed, swooping and spiraling as if of a single mind. 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