I wish that the band-tailed pigeon would visit my yard more often.
Hunting the Band-Tailed Pigeon
In his book The Birds of California, published in 1923, W. Leon Dawson describes the destruction of countless band-tailed pigeons in the fall and winter of 1911-12. Hunters came "by automobiles and trainloads" to the interior valleys of Santa Barbara County to take pot shots at what were probably half a million band-tails that were on their wintering grounds.
"What followed on this occasion was a humiliating example of what human cupidity, callousness, and ignorance, when unrestrained, will accomplish toward the destruction of birds," Dawson writes. "How great the destruction of that winter really was is a matter of merest conjecture, but it must have been a very sensible proportion, possibly more than half the entire species … Fortunately, this destruction and the agitation which ensued prompted the government to declare a five-year closed season on band-tailed pigeons."
Incredibly, it is legal today to hunt the band-tailed pigeon in six states (California, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah), as well as in Mexico and Central and South America. In addition, the bird's woodland habitat is being encroached upon by human development. Therefore, it is not surprising that the band-tailed pigeon appears on the Audubon WatchList, which identifies bird species whose populations are declining and/or face threats to their breeding and wintering grounds.
Is it not time for our government agencies to declare a moratorium on the hunting of the band-tailed pigeon for once and for all?
Mathew Tekulsky writes a regular column about birding in his backyard and neighborhood in Bel Air, California. You can follow his encounters with the birds of the Santa Monica Mountains here on National Geographic News Bird Watcher every fortnight or so.
Previous columns by the Birdman of Bel Air
New Bird-Watching Column: "The Birdman of Bel Air"
Birding Column: House Wrens' Twice-a-Minute Feeding Frenzy
The California Towhee, Boldly Bland
At Home With Hooded Orioles
Scrub Jays Go Nuts for Peanuts
Northern Mockingbird is a Wary Neighbor
Christmas With the Pelicans
California-Quail Close Encounter
Yosemite Steller's Jay Encounter
Banding Birds at Devils Postpile
California Condor Close Encounter
California Condor Rebound
Going Nuts With Wilderness Ravens
Hummingbird Chicks Fly the Nest
Mexican Jays' Dogged Pack Mentality
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