Why do pigeons nod their heads when walking? The answer is in biology. Why do all pigeons nod their heads when walking? Why do pigeons nod doves?

Pigeons are mentioned in the most ancient books; For many years this bird has played a very important role in the life of people and states, being a fast and reliable way of transmitting information. She is beautiful and graceful, intelligent and trainable. Much seemed to be known about these birds, but some secrets have not yet been revealed. For example, the question of why pigeons nod their heads when walking still remains open. What is already known about this, read this article.

Several scientific versions

There are many versions, theories and guesses, among them there are several scientifically based, which should be considered in more detail. Birds jerk their heads during movement, and not at rest. Is it so?

The first

The structure of the bird's body allows it to move slowly and gracefully on its two legs, and not waddle, like many birds. All this thanks to the ability to balance with the neck. Head nods help maintain your center of gravity.

The second

According to this theory, the reason lies in the structural features of the bird's eye. In pigeons, the pupil is motionless, and for a better view of the environment, they need to constantly twist their head. To confirm this hypothesis, a number of experiments were carried out, which can be found in more detail in a separate section.

Third

This version explains the reason why pigeons shake their heads while walking, as follows: monocular vision is the "fault".

Human visual capabilities are called binocular because both eyes are side by side, in the same plane, in front of the head. The fields of vision of the eyes intersect, and a person receives a three-dimensional visual image as a result.

He can orient himself well in space, like most representatives of the animal world (for example, predators).

In pigeons, the eyes are located on the sides of the head, and the intersection of the visual fields may not be at all (or it is catastrophically small). However, the pigeon's eye gets a wide side view, the radius of which, according to scientists, is 300 °. This means being able to see everything that happens from behind.

Taking a small object with monocular vision makes the task almost impossible.
However, if you start to make progressive, insignificant vibrations, then the space around becomes three-dimensional (it is this information that enters the brain due to a short-term coincidence of different points of view with a small time delay).

Fourth

Another version of this interesting behavior is that the pigeon shakes or shakes its head to attract females during the mating season. Such characteristic movements may indicate that the male is ready to acquire offspring and is looking for a companion.

Important! The physiological process of moving the head of a pigeon is as follows: jerk - holding, which together form a forward movement. First, the head is thrown forward, then it freezes in a certain position. It is at this moment that the bird manages to consider its surroundings, and then the body catches up with its head.

Common myths

There are legends that pigeons got such a unique ability to move their necks from their distant ancestors - dinosaurs. It turns out that some representatives of these ancient people had such a motor reflex due to their long neck and relatively small torso.

There is a version that pigeons are insectivorous birds in the past, which evolved and preferred grass and seeds for food, and the reflexes to catch their prey still remain.

An interesting option is the imaginary ability of birds to dance. Indeed, this is exactly how some inhabitants explain their nods. They say that pigeons are musical and, while moving, love to sway to the beat of their own body vibrations.
When the music is turned on, the amplitude of their oscillations increases (allegedly because of the love for the melody and the desire to dance).

Did you know? Wild pigeons can reach speeds of up to 185 km / h. Such individuals can live in their natural environment for up to 5 years, but poultry can live almost 7 times longer. Facts are known when individual individuals under human care lived up to 35 years.

What experiments say

In 1978, the Canadian scientist Frost was curious, and he decided to find out experimentally the cause of the nodding of pigeons. For the experiment, the pigeon itself and a treadmill were involved, on which it was hoisted in a transparent cube so that the bird could not fly away.

During the experiment, scientists learned that first the feathered one takes a step forward, and then its head moves behind the body. This allows the bird to see everything around it. When the experimental pigeon got used to the environment and walked on the treadmill as usual, it stopped nodding.

Pigeons are wonderful birds that never cease to amaze people with their talents, unique abilities and friendly character.

Kira Stoletova

Few people know why pigeons nod their heads when walking. There are a lot of oddities and uniqueness in our life that are rather difficult to explain. For example, not all the characteristics of animals can be understood. And one of the still unexplained - why doves nod their heads when walking.

History of appearance

In nature, pigeons settle in the mountains, on the seashore and rivers, but they also adapt well to life in our cities, since houses and their structure, especially "pockets" above the roofs, are very similar to their usual living conditions. They live for a relatively short time - 3-6 years.

It is said that once a specimen was found that lived for over 40 years. The species is characterized by speed and intelligence. Such individuals can reach speeds of up to 190 km / h, although this is difficult to do in the city, because everywhere there are wires and tall buildings.

Possible reasons for this "oddity"

The pigeon has lived for several centuries on our land and not all the features of this species are clear to us. One of them - why do pigeons nod their heads with a characteristic movement. Probably, any person very often paid attention to the fact that when birds move, they begin to move their heads especially quickly.

In fact, there are several interpretations of this habit. They are mainly based on human observation and scientific assumptions. While not all of these theories are true, there are several worthwhile. The main thing is to remember that a pigeon moves its head only when it walks. When a pigeon stands still, he does not move it, and there are explanations for this.

The first theory

One of the first explanations is very musical. They say that pigeons have a very delicate musical sense, which is why, when they walk, they feel the rhythm of their steps and nod involuntarily in time.

There is an opinion that if you turn on music to a bird, you can notice an unusual reaction of the pigeon: it starts looking for the source of the noise and sometimes shakes its head back and forth. Also, the winged ones begin to move very actively and walk from side to side.

Opinions are divided on this score.

Some believe that the pigeon just begins to worry and worry, so it behaves this way.
Others are sure that the dove begins to dance to the music.

What other explanations are there

The second explanation is based on the fact that the pigeon nods when walking precisely because of the structure of its body. It is an established fact that these birds walk on two legs. If a person uses his hands for balance, swinging them from side to side, then the kochuga shakes his head back and forth for the same purpose. For example, eagles nod their heads for balance, but this is not so striking, because they move very imposingly, calmly and evenly.

This theory also has its flaws. For example, when the birdie stands, it perfectly keeps its balance, the pigeon's legs are relatively strong, and the spread fingers with nails perfectly support the bird.

Anatomy is to blame

The third interpretation is tied to the anatomy of pigeons. Moreover, experts are sure that this particular theory is the reason for such "strange" behavior of birds. Due to the fact that the pigeon's eye is built in such a way that when walking it simply cannot move from side to side, the winged individual moves its entire head in order to be able to see the picture of the world in full. To understand where danger may lie, the bird needs to move its head.

An experiment was carried out with birds. For example, a pigeon was placed on a jogging track, where it was taught to walk. As it turned out, this anomaly has two sides.

For many people, pigeons - so familiar birds that sometimes you don't even notice their presence. However, on the Web, you can find many interesting facts about these birds, get acquainted with the original representatives of the Pigeon family and learn unusual facts about their behavior. If you are interested in the question why pigeons nod their heads when walking, we suggest finding the answer to it together.

Information about pigeons

Representatives of the genus of pigeons, and in particular the gray-winged individual, can be found on all continents. The genus has 35 species. The domestication of the rock dove occurred approximately 5-10 thousand years ago, the exact date is unknown.

Did you know? The most expensive pigeon - a representative of a sports breed with snow-white plumage - was sold at an auction in Britain for 132.5 thousand dollars.

The antiquity of the pigeon family is evidenced by images (figurines, coins, mosaics) relating to Mesopotamia, and the remains of a pigeon skeleton found in ancient Egyptian burials.

Our ancestors used these birds as a totem, a sacred bird, as a messenger for delivering mail, as well as for eating. Since that time, people have worked on breeding new breeds, and today domestic pigeons have about 800 of them. They differ in plumage colors, body size and shape, and purpose.

are divided into three large groups:

decorative (flight).

Why do pigeons nod their heads when walking

If you look closely at how the birds move on the ground, you will notice that they walk at a pace, constantly shaking their heads back and forth. There are several versions of why they do this, which belong to both scientists and ordinary people who love to observe the life of birds. We propose to consider each of them.

Did you know? Blue pigeons have excellent eyesight. This ability was used by rescuers in search operations of people on the water. As a result of experiments carried out in the 1980s in the United States, birds managed to find objects to search in 93% of cases, while rescuers failed in 62%.

First version

According to some people, this habit of walking is inherent in the gray-winged due to the fact that they have a well-developed sense of rhythm and ear for music, therefore, when they move, they swing to the beat of their movements. And since the pigeons - frequent inhabitants of noisy cities, where music often sounds on the streets, with such head movements they seem to dance to the beat of the music.

You may even notice that when you turn on the music, they become more fussy and restless, more actively moving from side to side and shaking their heads. With excellent hearing, pigeons can hear sounds at lower frequencies that humans cannot. This may be the noise of the wind, approaching bad weather, etc.

This version, of course, belongs to the people, but bird watchers are inclined to other explanations.

Second version

According to the second version, which already has scientific justification, moving in this way, the birds maintain their center of gravity. Since it is rather difficult to hold such a body on two thin legs, they also connect the head to the process of maintaining the center of gravity.

If you observe other representatives of birds, it turns out that larger individuals prefer to waddle, and small - move by jumping. To maintain the center of gravity, a person uses hand movements while walking.

Third version

The third version is the most convincing and clearly explains why the pigeon nods its head when walking. It turns out that this is due to the special structure of the organs of vision. Thus, the bird stabilizes the image, since it cannot move its pupils.

Stabilization occurs at the moment when the bird pulls its head forward and fixes it for some time in a motionless position, and then the whole body is “pulled” to the head.

This version was confirmed by an experiment in 1976. Scientist B. Frost forced the representatives of the family of pigeons to walk on a treadmill, specially built for these purposes, which was placed in a transparent plexiglass cube.

How often many of us have to see pigeons in our lives, and at the same time, how little we know about them. All the known information about our curly neighbors most often comes down to the fact that they eat seeds and various cereals (who will pour what), do not fly away for the winter and like to shit from the rooftops. We have no time, and no need, to learn more - we think. Meanwhile, the world of even the most familiar animals for us can be very exciting.

Why do pigeons nod their heads while walking is a question that each of us has probably asked ourselves at least once. But for many, it, along with other questions about the life of these birds, still remains a mystery. For those who nevertheless decided to become a little closer to our feathered neighbors, this little story was created. In particular, let's try to figure out why pigeons have such a funny gait.

General information about pigeons

The weight of an adult pigeon usually ranges from 200 to 650 g. Most often on the streets we see blue doves, which are one of 35 existing species. This genus of birds can be found in countries located on three continents of the earth: Africa, Eurasia and Australia. The life of a wild pigeon usually does not last more than 5 years. In captivity, they live 2-3 times longer, in rare cases even reaching 35 years.

Since people learned to create new breeds of pigeons, more than 800 of them have been bred. Of these, about 200 are in Russia. The peculiarity of these birds is known to fly to their native nests, even when they are hundreds of kilometers away. They can reach speeds of up to 100 km / h. The ancient Greeks, Persians, Romans, Jews and Egyptians learned to transmit various news through them. In many countries, pigeon mail operated officially, it was especially actively used during the war.

Strange pigeon gait

We are so accustomed to these feathered creatures that we either do not notice them at all, or everything in their behavior seems to us quite ordinary and explainable. But sometimes watching pigeons in the park or at the bus stop can give us some questions.

For example, why do pigeons nod their heads when they walk? This strange gait seems to be very uncomfortable, it seems that it is given to them with great difficulty. But this is only at first glance. In fact, if they were created with the ability to move in this way, then it was necessary. In nature, nothing happens in vain.

Explanations of the pigeon gait

There are many hypotheses as to why pigeons nod their heads when walking. Some believe that in fact the nodding effect is created visually, but in fact the bird does not move it, moving only its body. The reason for the peculiarity of the pigeon gait is sometimes explained by the need to maintain body balance. For this purpose, small birds usually jump, and large ones waddle.

Someone believes that the structure of the pigeon, or rather the location of its eyes, is the cause of this phenomenon. The fact is that the bird's eyes are set on the sides of the head, and therefore it has an And just in order to see the whole picture in front of it at once, it makes a sharp nod when walking.

What did one experiment show?

In 1976, a scientist set up a very interesting experiment with pigeons. He placed the bird in a cube, where he installed a special treadmill so that the pigeon would not have the opportunity to get off it. The purpose of this experiment was to test whether the bird would nod its head in such an environment.

As it turned out, in such conditions the birds stop nodding their heads. Observing a pigeon running on a treadmill led the scientist to conclude that the nod was necessary to stabilize the image. In the process of running on a treadmill that moved with the pigeon, the need to stabilize the visible environment disappeared. According to this study, the best explanation for this question is how pigeons see. By the way, if you blindfold a pigeon, it will also stop nodding while taking a step.

Unique pigeon vision

The difference between pigeon vision and human vision is that a person perceives the movements of objects, seeing 24 frames per second, and a pigeon needs to see as many as 75 frames for this. Therefore, they perceive everything that happens around them as separate pictures, which means that they notice an object approaching them at the last moment.

And although in this the vision of a pigeon is inferior to that of a human, it has clear advantages. None of us can boast of the ability to see as far as these birds. Just imagine, a pigeon is able to see an object at a distance of three kilometers. Appreciating this advantage, the United States even used their help in search and rescue operations.

How much we still do not know about our seemingly familiar environment. We see pigeons so often and know so little about them. Knowing why pigeons nod their heads when walking, it will be much more interesting to watch these birds. Now you can try to imagine what the world looks like in their eyes and get a little closer to them. Let's notice the world around us, because it is very interesting and beautiful.

Pigeons have lived next to humans for over 5000 years. During this time, 800 breeds were bred. These are not just birds, they served us faithfully: they helped us deliver mail, in some areas this was the only way to communicate news to loved ones. Despite the centuries-old history, feathered neighbors raise a lot of questions, for example, why do pigeons nod their heads when they walk? Everyone noticed it. Let's consider several options.

Ear for music

Amateur breeders, observing the animals, concluded that they have excellent hearing and a sense of rhythm. When they walk, they begin to move in time with the steps - to dance.

Moreover, if a pigeon hears music, it performs active actions: it walks in different directions, shifts more. For us it looks like a real dance. So this version appeared.

However, the theory is not proven by science, these are only the assumptions of observant people. Therefore, we can neither confirm nor deny it, it has the right to exist. But bird watchers are leaning towards a different version.

This is due to their anatomy. Let's figure it out. Animals walk, on two legs, as we are on our feet. People use their hands to maintain balance, waving them without noticing it. And by the way, these strokes are regulated subconsciously: when necessary, they get more intense or have a certain angle of inclination.

Dove, in order not to fall, needs to hold balance... They do this with the head, adjusting the position of the center of gravity.

We don't notice, but other birds do the same. For example, some predators are eagles or hawks. Only they do it more slowly, so we don't see. And the pigeon is a fussy, nervous bird, its movements are sharp. But - this is also one of the theories.

Features of vision

According to another version, the nods are due to the structure of the pupil: it cannot move to the sides, like in a person. It turns out that the feathered one looks only in front of him. To see what is happening to the right or left, he makes "nodding" movements, thus stabilizing the image.

An experiment was conducted on this topic. The researchers forced the pigeons to walk on a treadmill in a transparent cube. So nothing distracted them. After a while, they got used to the situation and stopped nodding. The body and head were almost motionless in relation to the environment. The birds calmly walked on, because now the speed of their movement and path are the same... The animal no longer lags behind the surrounding world and does not need to nod, it sees and so.

This is the most scientific explanation known. However, scientists do not claim that their hypothesis is reliable. Options are possible.

Mating games of pigeons

And the last known version assumes the peculiarities of the personal life of winged postmen: males attract the attention of girlfriends. But why then do the females nod? Apparently in reply.

Perhaps birds can do this when:

Feel danger and try to communicate it to others;
Feel changes in the weather.

Again, these are unsupported theories. Only observation and guesswork. It's amazing: for so many years of coexistence, people have not understood this riddle, but only made several assumptions.

We are used to these birds, as we see hundreds of them on the street. But I never thought how amazing they are, just imagine:

Their eyes are never blinded by a bright flash of lightning or sunlight. They can look directly at the light without turning away. The effect is obtained thanks to a special retina that can change its density as needed. It may become denser or more transparent;
Their eye is able to perceive more frames per second than a human, about 75;
Some species have specially shaped feathers that allow them to fly at very low altitudes. They have feathers that make sounds during flight, so they communicate in a flock;
Some representatives are real acrobats: they can perform a whole series of somersaults not only in the air, but also on the ground;
In our latitudes, there are mainly animals with dull gray-black plumage. But few people know that one of the species belongs to the most beautiful birds on the planet. it asian fruit pigeons... They have a bright color: yellow breast, crimson head and greenish wings.

In the 12th century, winged postmen were prized over horses, as they knew how to deliver mail. People worshiped them, considered them a symbol of new life. Until now, the dove is a good sign, newlyweds and children are launched into the sky for good luck.

So, we can draw conclusions: no one knows exactly why pigeons nod their heads. So far, people cannot solve this secret, although they have learned to understand more complex things.

Now, perhaps you will not think that this is an ordinary animal and take a closer look at it with interest, or maybe you will finally understand their inexplicable behavior.

Pigeon walk video

In this video, Irina Fedorova will tell you several more versions of why pigeons have such a strange gait:

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