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FeaturedPigeon Rescue: people who can help
Links to various pigeon-friendly organisations, groups, rescue centres, and vets that can help with injured, ill or orphaned pigeons and doves.
The problem of chronic egg laying
Talking about the problem of continuous egg laying in birds (e.g. risks to health) and possible solutions.
Welfare of fancy pigeons
Discussing the genetic welfare problems of some fancy pigeon breeds.
How to tell if a pigeon is male or female
Explaining a bit about sexing pigeons.
The scoop on pigeon poop!
Are pigeon faeces dangerous to humans and can it be used as fertiliser?
Pet pigeons - what we mean
Explaining what we mean when we talk about keeping pigeons as pets. In brief: We mean keeping tame, imprinted or disabled pigeons that would not otherwise survive in the wild.
Feral pigeons and disease – do pigeons carry disease?
Do pigeons pose a threat to the public and your health. The quick answer is: No, they do not. Don’t believe me? Well, read the full article to find out.
Hand-rearing pigeons - right or wrong?
Controversial post on whether it is right to hand-rear a pigeon on its own and therefore potentially cause them to become imprinted on humans.
Invisible babies
Why we don’t normally see baby pigeons, their growth rate (photos included) and info on what to do if you find a baby pigeon.
Pigeon Rescue: what to do with injured, ill and orphaned pigeons
Information on what to do, as well as links to various sites about pigeon rescue.
I just wanted to share these lovely paintings of pigeons, by two talented ladies.
Pigeon XV by Lynda D’Amico ©2011, oil on wood, 9″x9″
Please visit Lynda D’Amico’s website, www.lyndadamico.com, as well as the Urban Pigeon Project for more paintings.
The Kiss by Christine Dobbin
Christine Dobbin is also selling pigeon cards. Please visit her website: www.christinedobbin.com, as well as her Facebook page, Pets by Christine.
There’s something very special about having a portrait of your pet animal, especially by an artist who captures the spirit of your pet.
We are lucky to have a painting of Elmo and one of Georgie:
These were painted by Ciara Healy: www.ciarahealy.com
The following portraits are of other people’s pet pigeons and they allowed me to share them with you to admire. 
I think they are both beautiful and unique.
A painting of Emmett, a 20 year old pet feral pigeon, on two of his own feathers. Painted by Bobbie Momsen: www.bobbiesbirds.com
Feather painting of Emmett
A portrait of a lovely King pigeon called Dovee (a.k.a. Super Dovee!) by Alina Kremer: www.alinakremer.com
Super Dovee portrait
Dovee is an ambassador for Mickacoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue. Please visit their website: www.pigeonrescue.org
You can buy Super Dovee merchandise: http://www.printfection.com/MickaCooGear/SUPER-Dovee
Not only will you have a copy of this lovely portrait, you will also be supporting a wonderful organisation.
If any of you have a painting, sculpture or other type of portrait of your beloved pet pigeon or dove, I’d love to see it! Please contact me by commenting on this post or by clicking on the pink ‘Feedback’ tab on the right of the website. Thank you!
After posting Pretty in pink? Glen Bass brought to my attention that someone is dyeing pigeons in Venice, Italy, as part of a project to increase public appreciation of pigeons. I looked into this and found the below article about it.
Photos from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/23293/colorful-pigeons-amongst-a-flock-of-grey-at-the-venice-biennale.html
As well as it happening in Italy, they also painted pigeons in Copenhagen, Denmark. Please see Julian Charriere’s pigeon project: Some pigeons are more equal than others
This website also has lots of photos of the dyed pigeons (thank you, Glen, for bringing this to my attention!): Colorful pigeons amongst a flock of grey at the Venice Biennale
Photos from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/23293/colorful-pigeons-amongst-a-flock-of-grey-at-the-venice-biennale.html
Questions are asked whether this is animal cruelty or not. And does the pink pigeon found in London mean that someone has started a similar project here in the UK?
Painted pigeons of St Mark’s square put Venice Biennale critics in a flap
Project to airbrush famous pigeons in garish, vibrant colours for architecture exhibition criticised by animal rights campaigners
- John Hooper in Rome – guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 August 2012
Swiss artist Julian Charrière says by painting the pigeons of St Mark’s square, Venice, they will become ‘better regarded’. Photograph: Rex FeaturesAs might be expected of the world’s most filmed, photographed and conspicuously indulged birds, the pigeons of St Mark’s square in Venice are capricious. If it takes their fancy, they will foul the top of your head, dig their claws into your scalp and mob the very tourists who feed them. But one thing that could be relied upon was that the pigeons of Venice were grey. Until now.In recent days, visitors to the city have been surprised to see pigeons sporting plumages that would do credit to a tropical parrot: green and yellow pigeons; pigeons whose feathers radiate electric blue or strident vermillion; even pigeons that seem to be robed in imperial purple.
Finding and filming them became a local pastime when it was revealed on Monday the coloured birds were the work of artists – the Swiss artist, Julian Charrière, and German artist, Julius von Bismarck – part of a performance for the architecture Biennale.
But while many tourists and locals were intrigued, questions were soon being raised about the ethics of the project. “Are works of art justified as such even when they involve other, non-consenting living beings?”, asked Miriam Leto on the www.artsblog.it website. It was not long before an answer was offered by another blogger on www.ecoblog.it.
“There is nothing to laugh about.” wrote “Marina”. “On the contrary, an initiative with so little respect for defenceless animals is to be condemned.”
The daily Corriere della Sera quoted Charrière as saying the project was “without any danger to the animals”. He said his aim was to give a recognisable personality to birds that were routinely harassed and reviled. “That way, pigeons will be better regarded.”
Animal defence activists are unlikely, however, to be comforted by the artist’s description on his website of the process used in a similar exercise in Copenhagen. That involved a “bird trap with a conveyor belt mechanism” where the “pigeon get [sic] automatically airbrushed in different colours. The machine was installed for a week on a roof in Copenhagen.”
The coloured pigeons are the latest in a series used in Biennales that has prompted controversy. At last year’s art Biennale, the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan exhibited a flock – in original hues – which had been embalmed.
Article from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/aug/27/venice-biennale-painted-pigeons-st-marks
I am very happy because today we have received paintings of Georgie and Elmo! 
I asked an artist friend of mine, Ciara Healy, if she could paint our pigeons and she replied “of course”. She came round to see them and immediately fell in love with them.
Here’s her work:
Displayed proudly in the living room
Georgie girl
Elmo boy
Ciara has really caught the mood of our pigeons and we are thrilled to have her artwork in our home. Wonderful portraits!
See more about Ciara Healy at: http://www.ciarahealy.com/
For some reason I can’t seem to shake off the subject of pigeons and art. If I had money I would probably fill our home with paintings, photos and drawings of pigeons. Crazy pigeon people are we? Not at all!!
So I did a little searching on the net for pigeon art and came up with a few sites.
The Global Pigeon Art Appreciation Society on Flickr post photos of pigeons in art. Some very nice pieces of work there: http://www.flickr.com/groups/917205@N23/
I really like this painting by Christy Freeman called Pigeon Eye: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/pigeon-eye-christy-freeman.html
And let me not forget this amazing artist, Petra Voegtle: http://vyala.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/the-gathering-new-painting-from-the-pigeon-series-wip/ and at: http://www.angelfire.com/art2/vyala_arts/painting/pigeons.html
I have to admit I think her pigeon paintings are astonishing. So beautiful.
And then there’s pigeon sculpture:
Photo from Jim Gifford on Flickr
There are three photos (taken by Jim Gifford) of three pigeons statues from the garden of artist Ann Fraser at Shepherd House, Musselburgh, nr, Edinburgh: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgifford/2272087019/in/set-72157603791207427/ Very sweet.
Although I haven’t got any natural talent in drawing or painting it is something I have always been attracted to. Maybe one day I’ll try to draw Elmo and Georgie. It’ll probably look nothing like them and you might just be able to identify the drawings as pigeons, but that doesn’t matter! It’ll be from the heart and that’s what counts.
On Saturday I wrote about pigeons being painted multi-coloured in Spain as part of a competition/game.
What Georgie would look like pink!
It reminded me of something Richard and I were working on a while ago (and which was regrettably put on the back shelf for a long time).
We’ve been wanting some artwork of Elmo and George and I thought it would be nice to have a portrait of Georgie in a pseudo Andy Warhol pop art style painting. On the right is one of the portraits we designed. I think she looks rather pretty in pink!
We’re thinking of having the picture printed on canvas (with maybe four or six portraits of Georgie in different colours). At the moment though our little project is on the back burner as we’re kept preoccupied with other matters, though hopefully soon I’ll be able to post the completed picture.
Ps. We think this should be the only way to paint a pigeon!
