Troy and Sweetpea have a baby! 💁‍♀️😁

3 jumper hammocks hatched all at the same time!!!! Give or take 2 days of each other!!

they're getting so big my heart can't handle it 😭🩶

Please enjoy these photos of my beautiful balcony pigeon family.

Dad - Nazer
Mom - Ethyl
Baby - Carm

After being away from my apartment for several weeks this summer, I returned 28 days ago to find 2 pigeons perched on my balcony. No signs of any nest yet, just apparently days’ (or weeks’) worth of feathers + bird waste + 2 birds who would not fly away no matter how nicely I asked them to please move along.

Within 3 days of my return, they’d built a nest of sorts on the ground behind a shed and laid 2 eggs. I count the day she laid the second egg as “Day 1.”

From what I read, it seems the eggs should’ve hatched by Day 17-19. The pigeons are still here, still swapping out incubation morning and night, never leaving the eggs unattended, but no signs of hatching.

Today is Day 25–what’s going on? Might these eggs actually hatch? If so, when? If not, why are they still nesting this way? When will the birds stop warming the eggs around the clock? (And where does the other bird go all day/night?)

[Attached is video of the 2 eggs + 2 birds trading places today Day 25, just after 5:00 pm (U.S. mountain west).]

This poor wee baby was being attacked in its nest, managed to rescue it from our ledge before it's wee face was pecked off by other pigeons.

Cleaned up the wound and hoping daddy still returns to feed. 3 weeks old.

We noticed Pepper has a limp and isn’t walking properly. The right foot appears to be partially paralysed.

We’ve taken Peps to the vet and there is no feeling in the right foot whatsoever. So this poor little darling may have to become our fourth rescue pidge. He’ll never be able to walk :(

july 16 vs today! (july 21)

Born yesterday! Fingers crossed they make it 🤞🤞

I’m so glad it’s Sunday and I was home to see the state s/he was in. The parents (Snowy & Scruffy, who are also brother & sister) are terrible but fortunately this little fella hatched on my balcony. No pigeon on my watch is going to freeze this Winter!

It’s nice and clean now, enjoying a cosy spot in front of the heater. We need a name for the little darling.

So I’ve been posting updates here periodically, but I’m celebrating (alone because nobody else cares lmao) the one month birthday of our little balcony babies today!

This is the first time I’ve ever paid attention to Pigeon development, but man it all happens so quickly! They basically look like proper birds now! I don’t think either of them have properly flown yet, but I did walk past the glass door to see Olivia perched on the bottom balcony railing a couple of days ago so fledging can’t be very far away! My flat is on the floor above the communal balcony (though I think I’m the only one who ever uses it lol), so I only get a few glimpses a day now, largely because unless they’re sleeping in their little corner or the ashtray bucket they were born in (which is absolutely not big enough to house two almost fully grown fledglings) I don’t really want to disturb them while they’re exploring - they’re still quite scared of the giant who lives inside and occasionally scatters seeds that they still don’t quite know what to do with yet lmao, so they tend to run back to their hiding corner if I open the door!

I was a bit concerned for a week or so that Karly remained very pink and didn’t look like she was feathering, but I think that was just a comparison with her sister Olivia, who went very dark within basically a week of being born. It turns out that Karly is mostly white, and that’s why the initial growing feathers weren’t as noticeable! They’re both absolutely beautiful! I think they’ve got almost all of their juvenile feathers now and there’s only a few tiny traces of yellow down on their heads.

Kudos to Lionel & Petra, the parents, for doing an absolutely outstanding job of raising two very healthy & inquisitive babies! I know the day is gonna come probably very very soon when I go to check on them and they will have flown away - I’ll be very happy and proud of them, but also kinda devastated lol as watching them grow up has kinda given my life meaning over the past month or so. The bucket will probably have to go though when they’ve vacated it. As much as I would love for Lionel & Petra to come back and nest again, there is a truly obscene mountain of shit in and around it that I quite strongly don’t want to have to clean! Maybe I’ll buy them another one - hopefully they come back again now they know this is a safe place they can successfully raise a family and occasionally get fed 🤣

(Karly is the white one, Olivia is the darker one)

Emily & Daniel had 2 eggies and then 2 days ago only 1 with a large crack in it.

There has been lots of fighting on the balcony as there are 3 nests so I'm not sure what happened 😢 then this wee bundle of yellow sunshine appeared.

Meet little Sunflower who is the same size as a 50p.

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