This is scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Jason Goldman.

Pigeons.

Ever since humans established permanent agricultural settlements, we've lived side by side with the birds, or as some people call them, rats with wings.

They walk on our sidewalks, roosts on our buildings, and eat our leftovers.

But soon, pigeons may help us identify risks. roost on our buildings and eat our leftovers.

But soon, pigeons may help us identify risks

to public health.

What we're doing here in my lab is we're assessing

how we can use something that's been considered a pest that people actively try to exterminate the pigeon.

How can we use it to better the environment for not only ourselves, but for pigeons and for other wildlife.

UC Davis neurobiologist Rebecca Kalisei.

She looked at lead levels in blood samples for more than 800 injured pigeons brought to a New York City

Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

And she compared those to Lead Levels and Blood Samples collected from children by the

New York City Department of Health in routine screening efforts.

The results were published in the journal Chemosphere.

So neighborhoods where children have high rates of lead toxicity.

That's where we saw pigeons with high blood lead levels.

So this was a proof of concept kind of project.

Most pigeons will live out their lives within just two kilometers of the place they hatched. so the birds may be able to help

researchers develop a detailed map of the risk of toxic lead exposure. In people,

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