I was sitting at my computer this afternoon when I noticed a pigeon fly into the top of a pine tree we have in the yard. Sadly this is a fairly common occurrence since one of our neighbors, who used to indiscriminately feed the pigeons, moved out of the neighborhood. The pigeons noticed all the other bird activity in our yard and moved right in. They make regular visits despite considerable efforts on my part to discourage them.
I assumed that this was one of the common, run-of-the-mill Rock pigeons that visits the yard. However as I looked at it I realized that it had a white stripe on it's neck, and my binoculars (a pair of which I keep on the windowsill) revealed that the bird had a two-tone beak and ruffled feathers on its neck in the area of the white stripe. A quick check of the bird book confirmed it was a Band-tailed pigeon. This is the first Band-tailed pigeon I've personally seen in the neighborhood even though neighboring birder friends (with better habitat) tell me they see them from time to time.
The next objective was to retrieve and assemble my camera to get photos. Fortunately the bird, although appearing nervous, stayed long enough for me to properly arm myself. Thinking a photo would be better from higher up I crept out on my office deck and snapped about 6-8 photos. The pigeon finally got too nervous and flew away, but not before I was able to get some decent photographs of it.
So here is our new visitor... a Band-tailed pigeon!
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