Several summers ago, a pigeon showed up on the ground near the feeder. Our first instinct was to chase it, not wanting to attract them because they're hard to get rid of (my husband hates them) and I always feel sorry for them.
Anyhow, the pigeon ignored the seeds. I threw some bread and doughnuts out and it ignored them. This went on for several days and I knew there was something wrong with him. I thought he was blind and couldn't see the food. He was getting weak.
I told a fellow doing some work in the neighborhood about the sick pigeon and that I was worried about it. He crept over to the bird and picked it up.. it was banded and had a good number.
We put the bird in our cat carrier - found out what to feed it on the net and found out who owned it and contacted him. He lived in Seattle and the bird was one that he raised and raced. The bird's sister had just won a race somewhere. He thought the weather might have confused "our" pigeon.
Anyway, he sent a label and a packing case, and we sent the bird to him. It arrived fine. He said they were going to call the bird "Martha" in honor of guess who....
Racing pigeons are trained to never eat anything but some seeds and grain - no potato chips, bread or twinkies....Martha was well-trained and almost starved till we gave her the right stuff - barley was one of the things, forgot the rest....
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