Puff, the Perth Pigeon

For some time the Perth Gnostic centre has been graced by Puff, a white fan tailed pigeon. We called him Puff because of his habit of jutting his chest out dramatically, as you will see in some pictures further down.

One day Sabah and I were working at the centre and noticed two beautiful white birds had landed outside near the back door. We had no idea where they had come from, but they were very tame so we decided they certainly were not wild birds. We thought they must have escaped from somewhere and needed food. Luckily I had some bird seed at the centre already to feed wild birds.

They seemed quite comfortable coming close to people.

Then one day Puff's mate was gone. He looked distressed and we think a hawk or a cat may have killed her. We have seen hawks chasing pigeons in the area. She only lasted about a week out of captivity.

Puff wasn't so tame after that and was always on edge, flying off at the slightest sound. But we could see that he didn't really know how to survive on his own. We often saw him sitting on the centre window sill, trying to get out of the rain and he was dependent on us as a food source. But when we came out to feed him, he would fly onto the roof and puff up and strut around -- I'm not sure if that was a pigeon ploy to strike fear into possible predators, but it sure looked funny.

It wasn't practical for us to feed him everyday though, because we couldn't always be there and if he wasn't there when we scattered seeds, other birds would come and take it. So I devised a plan to build a shelter for him where he could perch out of reach of cats, and hoped other birds wouldn't find the food I left there.

Building the shelter:

I mounted it on the wall near where he hung around, and put food there, but Puff couldn't seem to figure it out. So I devised a plan to get him more familiar with it. I put his seeds on a table where it was easy for him to see from the roof (where he spent most his time) and placed the shelter on a chair next to the table. After a while I put the food in the shelter, so that when he landed on the table he would see the food there. After a while he got used to landing on the shelter to eat.

So I put the shelter back up on the wall and this time Puff, after a hesitating a bit, landed there to eat. He seemed quite happy with it and became much more relaxed, I suppose because he felt more secure. Here he is sitting on his food:

But Puff's bachelor life was soon turned on its head with the arrival of a new lady.

These types of pigeons are supposed to return to their cages if you let them out during the day, but Puff and his orginal mate never returned to their owner and landed on a nearby roof instead, namely the Perth centre's.

Now Puff and his mate had been in a cage with their fully grown baby. When the owner let the three of them out, only the baby came back. And the baby keeps returning to the neighbour to this day, and he lets it out everyday.

But when the parents absconded, he bought another female for the young son of Puff. But he didn't like her very much, and when he let them out, she took off and found the lonely Puff, as well as his shelter.

But it wasn't love at first sight. Puff was less than pleased and chased her off his Perch. Not giving up easily, she landed at another of his haunts, the roof of the nearby shed where we kept a dish of water for Puff to drink and have a bath in. Puff promplty flew down and sat in the water so she couldn't get to it. And I must point out that it was freezing cold that day...

She edged closer and tried to get to the water, but Puff stubbornly refused to budge.

Then she made her move, boldy going for a drink. Puff put on the most extraordinary Puffing effort we have seen yet, and we finally decided on his name that day.

She starts giving him a taste of his own medicine, but is a bit out puffed.

It took a few days for Puff to get used to the new company, but gradually he warmed to her. 

She has had a good effect on him, in that he is much calmer and relaxed now. But it goes both ways, and she's taken on a bit of Puff's strange behaviour too, and is a bit more skittish. When Puff gets going with th puffing and strutting it tends to set her off too.

I had to change the feeding method again, because a small plastic dish didin't last very long with seed, and blew off when empty, and I wanted something I could fill up and leave for some time. So we bought a proper feeder which you can see in the pictures below.

But soon I had to make some modifications to the feeder. Wild birds were landing on it by the dozen, and the seed was all but gone within a few days. So I designed a hi-tech upgrade that kept the wild birds out, preventing them from landing on the lip to feed, but still allowing the pigeon pair to reach the food.

Its amazing what you can do with an icecream container and a bucket - I might have to patent this. It doesn't look pretty but it does the trick, and we harldly ever need to top the seed up now.

As you can see they seem very content now. Here's a final shot of them happily basking in the sun by the water dish on the shed, after having a bath:

We hope they live happily ever after.

The one thing we haven't done though is name Puff's partner. Has anyone got any suggestions?