Found a pigeon that seemed drunk, then died 10 minutes later. Why?

Vanquish-Storm · 5 Sep 2021 at 10:13

How did you post this if you died after finding a drunk pigeon?

timmy222 · 5 Sep 2021 at 11:43

The bird was fine - the op was drunk after drinking white lightning - trying to force the bird into the cooking pot he had handy killed it lol.

GTAMADDOG · 5 Sep 2021 at 12:19

Paramyxovirus or something similar although that is normally an issue for pigeons that are domesticated (racing pigeons or tumblers) rather than wild birds. I guess its possible if the pigeon ate/drank from an infected food source, but I'm not an expert.

gort · 5 Sep 2021 at 12:56

This thread reminded me of an incident a while back where I found a fresh dead pigeon on our patio. I checked our cctv and it captured the bird flying straight into a 1st floor window then hitting the deck. It wobbly briefly before lying on it's front and twitching for a few seconds before just drifting away. Was sad to watch.

dlockers · 5 Sep 2021 at 13:11

gort said:
This thread reminded me of an incident a while back where I found a fresh dead pigeon on our patio. I checked our cctv and it captured the bird flying straight into a 1st floor window then hitting the deck. It wobbly briefly before lying on it's front and twitching for a few seconds before just drifting away. Was sad to watch.

I remember playing P.E. in highschool, and we had this Jamaican kid who was a right laugh. A pigeon flew into the power line above the field, and dropped dead with a snapped neck. We all gathered "ooing and aahing" at this poor bird. The Jamaican kid piped up:

"If this was in Jamaica, we would have eeeeten it by now" /thick Jamaican accent.

Diddums · 5 Sep 2021 at 13:26

See this all the time with mice and rats, when they've gotten hold of some poison they always wobble around a bit looking drunk before dying.

Minusorange · 5 Sep 2021 at 13:29

GTAMADDOG said:
Paramyxovirus

Almost definitely this, we've had a few feral pigeons with it around here too, not much you can do but provide them some safe shelter with food & water. It's a notifiable disease but Defra seem only interested in pet pigeons and don't care about feral pigeons having it

Make sure to wash your hands after handling them as it can cause conjunctivitis

throwaway4372 · 5 Sep 2021 at 13:29

brain injury, headed too many footballs

BowdonUK · 5 Sep 2021 at 13:47

Don't all the best birds have "that possessed neck action" going on?

Blackjack Davy · 5 Sep 2021 at 19:05

gort said:
This thread reminded me of an incident a while back where I found a fresh dead pigeon on our patio. I checked our cctv and it captured the bird flying straight into a 1st floor window then hitting the deck. It wobbly briefly before lying on it's front and twitching for a few seconds before just drifting away. Was sad to watch.

That reminds me where I used to drive to work there was a railway bridge where hundreds of them used to nest once coming down the hill there were 3 or 4 in the road below walking about I was getting closer and closer and thought "they're going to fly away... going to fly away... going to fly away..."

They didn't. Drove straight over them looked in the mirror and they were all feathers and completely flunked out across the road. If they weren't dead then I'm sure something would be along soon to flatten them. Oops.

englishpremier · 5 Sep 2021 at 19:16

Apex said:
We decided to try put it in a pot we had, but was too small and the pigeon kept trying to walk off.

worst 'I tried to make a pigeon pie' thread ever.

arknor · 5 Sep 2021 at 20:21

Apex said:
Left it for the next 5 minutes. Breathing got heavy and it ended up taking once last breath and then drying.

Probably ate some poison or had a parasite burrow into it's brain :O

I hope you disinfected properly after touching it.
BTW some birds die with fright but actually aren't dead, like if you stop your cat with a bird in it's mouth often if you put the bird outside in a box and wait 5mins it will fly off even though it seems dead.

I was at the park the other week with my parents who were visiting and my mum spotted a one legged pidgeon :O just hopping around.
My mum thinks it landed on one of those glue strips some people use and ate it's own leg off or something

Seemed like it had adapted fine though

builder22 · 5 Sep 2021 at 20:48

there was a bird shuffling about in a field at my parents...obviously something wrong with it, the cat eventually spotted it and did its usual sneaking up/hunting type thing but when it went to attack the bird didn't flinch or try to fly away and the cat just left it alone and walked away!
I'd like to think the cat felt sorry for it but I'm guessing the bird just ruined his fun so lost interest

mmj_uk · 5 Sep 2021 at 21:48

If the corporate media see this they'll probably have an article up "Unvaccinated pigeon dies of COVID after bragging that he's so fit he can steal an entire bag of chips, family member says.". If he was vaccinated then they won't report or put him in the died within 28 days of a positive test category.

builder22 · 5 Sep 2021 at 22:21

Fubsy · 5 Sep 2021 at 22:56

drunkypigeon.com

Tefal · 5 Sep 2021 at 23:37

Apex said:
Found this pigeon down a dirt alley that was sat on floor doing nothing. We stopped to not scare it, but after about 30 seconds it started to roll its neck back in such a way I could only describe as a those it was possessed, and then it tried to fly, but into the ground.

After first I thought it looked totally drunk, as though its eaten some old fruit and now can't figure out anything.

It then puffed itself up, sat calm, and after another minute tried to fly away, but again just into the ground.

It's neck didn't seem broken, nor a wing (based on it trying to fly off and both wings flapping seemingly fine).

We decided to try put it in a pot we had, but was too small and the pigeon kept trying to walk off.

Knowing it was vulnerable we ended up picking it up and carrying it home, but again it started to have that possessed neck action going on so put it down and it did the floor flying thing.

Left it for the next 5 minutes. Breathing got heavy and it ended up taking once last breath and then drying.

Hoping someone might recognise this behaviour and the cause? I'm more curious than anything else.

Smashed its head into something possibly.

You're viewing th end state of concusion

nine_tails · 6 Sep 2021 at 00:07

Bugger, no idea, sorry to hear though.

kinetic747 · 6 Sep 2021 at 09:17

robfosters said:
It probably watched Bidens last press conference and lost the will to live

Or heard Trump might be running again and flew into the nearest solid object at the thought.

Participant · 6 Sep 2021 at 09:33

Maybe it really was drunk. Very, very drunk.