Urban Naturalist Follows Pigeon Population, Finds Baby Pigeons
PARIS — The question “why do we never see baby pigeons?” — posed by Marine Leclair during a Sunday market walk, in a gap between the cheese vendor and the vegetable section — has produced a forty-five-minute investigation that Marine describes as “the most satisfying afternoon I have had in three years” and that has confirmed: baby pigeons exist, baby pigeons are called squabs, squabs spend their first month in the nest rather than on public streets, the nest is in elevated locations inaccessible to pedestrian observation, and the squab that emerges from the nest after one month is approximately the same size as an adult pigeon, which is why the baby pigeon that the public does not see is the adult pigeon the public does see.
“We see baby pigeons constantly,” Marine confirmed. “We do not recognise them as baby pigeons because they have already reached adult size. The baby pigeon is the pigeon.” She photographed three adult-sized juvenile pigeons on the market return route. The juvenile markers are visible (shorter tail feathers, brighter eye ring) to someone looking for them. Marine is now looking for them. Marine has identified seven juveniles this week.
The Observation Gap
The “we never see baby pigeons” question reflects an observation gap: the thing that is absent from conscious observation (the baby pigeon) is absent because it is present in a different form (the adult-sized juvenile) that the observer has not been calibrated to identify. The calibration is available. The calibration is the information that squabs reach adult size before fledging. Marine is calibrated. Marine is seeing baby pigeons everywhere.
According to France’s Natural History Museum’s urban wildlife research, Paris has an estimated 80,000 pigeons, whose juvenile population is approximately 30% of the total. The 30% are the baby pigeons. The 30% are on the streets. The 30% look like adult pigeons. They are exactly this size.
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