This is Bird Note.

Pigeons are everywhere in our cities.

But how did they get there?

Short answer?

We invited them.

It started in the earliest cities of Mesopotamia, 7,000 years ago.

Humans cultivated grain.

Wild pigeons came to forage.

Mesopotamians encouraged pigeons to nest in man-made shelters, but they had some ulterior

motives.

Pigeons fat chicks or squabs were a delicacy, and adult pigeons were sacrificed to the gods.

Early civilizations also discovered pigeons' brilliant homing ability.

The birds could point wandering ships homeward and speedily carry messages across large distances.

Pigeon racing, which is still a sport today, has ancient routes, too.

Charles Darwin bred pigeons and pondered their inherited traits.

So until recently in our shared history, pigeons did all the work, serving as meat, sacrifices,

navigators, messengers, racers, hobby supplies, and science experiments.

And they took readily to cities, because long before they met up with people, pigeons nested

on cliffs, making them perfectly suited to building their nests on skyscrapers or

tucked into the eaves of urban apartment complexes.

Though some might see them as winged rats in today's cities, pigeons and people have a

long-standing bond, especially in our urban environment.

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