Pigeons: Pretty things or rats with wings?
Eco-tourism is booming and birdwatchers in particular are flocking to Belize in record numbers. But the nation’s birdlife is not confined to the bush, as News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams found out.
Rudi Burgos, Birdwatcher
“Pigeons are from a fairly big group of birds that are distantly related to chickens, turkeys. In Belize we have several types of pigeons and doves, the name is interchangeable, and the kind that we see on the Belize City streets or urban areas are called rock doves.”
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
If you walk, ride or drive along the Sand Lighter’s Promenade on the Barracks mid-morning or afternoon, on any given day, more than likely you’ll see a flock of colourful rock doves or pigeons feeding near the sea. These omnivores are very adaptable to human presence because of how they feed.
Rosalind Gonzalez, knows all too well about feeding the birds. She’s hired as a domestic helper to work both inside and outside this nearby residence. Her outside job is feeding the pigeons, twice per day.
Rosalind Gonzalez
“We feed them 11 o’clock and we feed them 4 o’clock. We feed them everyday two buckets of corn in the morning and two in the evening. That means sixty pounds in one day.”
These birds known for their iridescent plumage also have a dark side. One that has businesswoman Lourdes Smith talking.
Lourdes Smith
“I think the pigeons are very pretty when they’re flying around, especially out here with the sea as the backdrop, it’s really nice. But there’s one thing that concerns me. Some people have stopped by and said the pigeon carry disease. I’m not sure about that and not really aware of the details of that. But it is something that makes you wonder sometimes. A lot of them roost on our roof and every morning we come and find a lot of pigeon droppings on the steps and we have to clean it off. But I would like to know if it’s true that they carry disease.”
Avid bird watcher and Audubon member Rudi Burgos says…
Rudi Burgos
“They carry similar disease to what rats carry. One of the most common diseases I’ve been told, it that they carry leptospirosis and disease related to that, related to liver problems. I know for a fact this is a problem. I just recently lost a puppy, because the puppy must have eaten something contaminated by rats, this is what the vet told me, but just as easily, it may have been contaminated by pigeons because they stool all over the place.”
One place a lot of Belizeans can relate to is in their rainwater vats.
Rudi Burgos
“If you don’t believe me, climb on your roofs and I am certain you’re going to see that your gutters are half-filled with pigeon stool. That is what you’re drinking, a good dose of concentrate pigeon stool.”
And as the pigeon population increased over the last five years, so did pigeon lovers.
Rudi Burgos
“There’s a whole segment of society, either because of religious reasons or ritualistic reasons, they actively feed pigeons.”
Burgos says if you think you’re doing something good by feeding the pigeons, think again! You’re destroying nature.
Rudi Burgos
“For a fact, I’m a birdwatcher and in Belize City I have seen perhaps as much as two hundred species of birds. But that has declined. In the Albert Street area, where used to be one of my favourite areas to watch birds, the Government House, the towers at Channel 5, there are little hawks I no longer see.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Not because of the pigeons though?”
Rudi Burgos
“I would think so, because they have overcrowded the roosting areas. The same thing occurs in the Fort George area, and it’s just that they are too many of them, there are just too many of them. So we are missing out on a tremendous amount of biodiversity, beautiful birds, song birds that are migrants, local songs birds, because of too many pigeons.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
