The world is on fire, but here's a nice thing.

The world is on fire, but here's a nice thing. A few months ago, a pigeon laid two eggs under our outdoor furniture on our balcony. We put a camera in there to keep an eye. The eggs hatched, survived, grew up, flapped their wings, and left the nest. Here's what happened & what we learned.

In mid-November, we found our cat Theo transfixed at the window. He was looking at a pigeon and two eggs, just plonked there on the astroturf. As it turns out, pigeons are quite shit at making nests (https://defector.com/why-do-pigeon-nests-look-so-shitty-an-investigation), and it was already starting to get cold out in the NY/NJ area.

We wanted to keep watch to make sure they were doing OK, while not interfering (because nature, y'know?). We knew nothing about pigeons, but were honored that this pigeon chose our balcony to raise their young, so of course this was fine.

Soon after Birdcam went live… holy shit, it's *two* pigeons!

We soon found that these pigeons would take turns nesting on these eggs, sometimes do a little dance and coo at each other when they would swap, maybe once or twice a day, presumably so they both could go out and eat. To see these birds take such care of their eggs was adorable.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at their nest and… granted, not much improvement.

(Yes, this is a cybersecurity, cat, and pigeon stan account now.)

It was getting colder and colder throughout November, getting down to almost freezing temperatures, high winds, and increasingly harsher weather. I secured some cardboard to the balcony railings so that it would shelter the pigeons from the elements.

OK, so I interfered a little bit, shuddup. :).

Then two weeks later on Dec. 1, Birdcam sent a notification to new activity. I opened my phone and saw this new video.

Narrator voice: Player three has entered the game.

Then two weeks later on Dec. 1, Birdcam sent a notification to new activity. I opened my phone and saw this new video.

Narrator voice: Player three has entered the game.

The egg hatched, and pigeon parent on duty removed it, and there it was, the tiniest little baby pigeon. I let out an almighty squee of joy.

Almost exactly a day later…

[P...p...p… player four has entered the game.] *airhorn*

Over the next few days, the pigeon parents would sit on the baby pigeons and occasionally swap every few hours, while the other would go out and get food. The baby pigeons would only be uncovered for a few seconds or so. They were tiny little things, so they would get cold very quickly.

They'd just sit here for hours, nesting on top of these tiny fluffballs to keep them warm as the temperatures continued to drop, presumably just thinking about how to pay for pigeon college or whatever. We put out some yarn for them in case they wanted to build up their nest. They declined, clearly.

Brief intermission: Here's one whole minute of a pigeon throwing up into the mouths of its young. This is how they are fed. Baby pigeons have one job, and that is to stay alive. They don't leave the nest until they're fully grown. That's why you never really see baby pigeons out in the world.

It was getting even colder during the day, around freezing, so we put outside a raggedy old towel in their not-very-nest. Just trying to be a good pigeon landlord here, move along.

By Dec. 10, the beebs are starting to get bigger and you can see how much they've grown in just over a week. We're not interacting with them at all because we don't want them to get accustomed to humans (and also we really would like our balcony back at some point, lol).

Two weeks in, and… yeah, turns out even pigeon parents need their peace, quiet, and a bit of space.

By Dec. 17, and these pigeon darlings are fully fledged rowdy little fuckers any time they're getting fed. As you can imagine with four of them sharing this space, there's lots of poop — but we didn't want to risk a human presence going in and inadvertently scaring them.

By Dec. 18, the pigeon parents began leaving the babies on their own for longer, seemingly to test their boundaries. The more time on their own, the more independent they become (we think). Where are the pigeon parents going? We saw them flying to …the neighboring balcony, just patiently waiting!

All the while, these pigeon babies are getting bigger, their feathers are developing, and they're getting more inquisitive, gaining independence from their parents.

I wasn't kidding when we called it Birdcam. Look at this little face! (Yes, this video feed was end-to-end encrypted.)