June 5, 2024

On the first day of my field research in Kyoto, I took a walk around the city, starting from Sanjo Keihan Station and going to the grounds of ROHM Theatre Kyoto. I found several pigeons, apparently hoping to get some food from the people at Starbucks and a convenience store. There were also some birds by the river and on the lawn. My observation area this time was flat and expansive. Where should I start? It felt preposterous. For now, I did a few laps around the building with the Starbucks. My goal for the day was 3D modeling the pigeons, so I searched for birds that were just crouching down and chilling like they sometimes do. I found one. But the resulting image quality was poor and when I looked back at it later, I realized what I’d done was more or less pointless. It was a letdown.

https://scrapbox.io/files/66a89d05b0fbbf001c4280c2.mp4

The 3D scan image quality is poor and basically tells us nothing.

And then I met a white pigeon. Its forehead was marked with a gray circle, its eyes were red, and its neck pretty white. This kind of white pigeon was easier to distinguish than the other, gray pigeons, and I felt extremely lucky to have met it on the first day. I gave it a nickname, Shirai, to remember it.

https://gyazo.com/8c7112899f87797832bb05a7b268f079

Shirai preening itself on top of Starbucks. The bird has a distinctive round mark on its forehead as well as red eyes.

Following Shirai for a while, I tried to examine its relationship with other pigeons but I couldn’t really figure it out. It would fly over to people from whom it might be able to get some food, but then children of what seemed to be tourists would chase it away. Shirai and the other pigeons were just searching for food while avoiding these children, and did not interact with each other. Since I was getting nowhere, I left Shirai and went to observe the area around the Kyoto City Museum of Art Annex. I found nothing of note there. I went back to Starbucks.

I found Shirai again on the wall with a handrail. And I found another white pigeon a short distance away.

https://gyazo.com/20d3f664044d21512b072e3bc56c5109

The two white pigeons. The one on the right is Shirai.

Both were easy to distinguish from the other pigeons. This was lucky. As I watched the two birds, Shirai and the other white pigeon came closer and closer together, and eventually started to preen each other. I continued to watch with bated breath, and before long they started to exchange pigeon milk. (This is apparently a gesture of goodwill among pigeons in which one bird regurgitates a substance into the other’s beak.)

https://youtu.be/bDiX_E8nXkI

The pigeon on the right is Shirai. On the left is another white pigeon that I spotted. (You can hear me getting excited at times. Sorry about that.)

And then, they mated. Because I was able to witness their mating, I could determine that the pigeon I’d named Shirai was indeed male, and the second white pigeon I spotted later was female.

But soon after starting to mate, another pigeon (gray with two black bars on the wings) intruded and brought things to an immediate end. Things felt a bit weird. What on earth was going on with these three birds?

https://youtu.be/0htmsPquseA

A gray pigeon interrupts the mating white pigeons.

Presuming these two white pigeons to be a couple, I called the first one I encountered (the male) Mr. Shirai and the second one (the female) Mrs. Shirai. I didn’t give a name to the gray pigeon that came along later because I didn’t think I would be able to distinguish it from other birds.

If I could understand the relationship between the two white pigeons, it might lead to an understanding of the relationships between other birds. I decided to refer to the two white pigeons collectively as Mr. and Mrs. Shirai.

The Kyoto fieldwork had got off to an auspicious start. A series of strokes of good luck meant a promising beginning for the research.

June 30, 2024

On the second day of the fieldwork, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Shirai were there. The weather also wasn’t good and the humidity levels awful. I felt despondent. Once again, I walked around the Starbucks building. While I did find pigeons, they weren’t doing anything of note.

Just when I thought I’d give up and go home, I spotted a pigeon near the entrance to Tsutaya Books staying still.

https://gyazo.com/022b450457ae46ae81e9d049f4cd9cb5

The motionless pigeon

I got to wondering why it would stay motionless in such a place, but then went by without giving it much thought because, after all, sometimes pigeons do that kind of thing.

I went a bit further afield to Kyoto City Museum of Art Annex and the lawn. Mr. and Mrs.Shirai were nowhere to be seen. For the first time, I started to panic that they might not even live in the area.

Going back to the entrance of Tsutaya Books, the pigeon was still there, not moving an inch. I observed it for a while, thinking that it might be injured.

https://gyazo.com/92d55218518a4b5ba42c399bced04f2e

The motionless pigeon

The pigeon seemed wary of this human who had stopped to watch it. I then realized that this might be a nest. Could the pigeon be incubating eggs? With this in mind, I took a peek and lo and behold, I could see nest-like materials underneath the bird.

It takes quite a bold pigeon to build a nest here, I thought, but then figured it was actually a pretty good choice of spot because the people coming in and out of the bookstore weren’t paying any particular attention to the pigeon.

Pigeons are pretty bad at building nests, so much so that typing “pigeon nest” in the Google search bar displays a suggested search of “pigeon nest bad.”

The incubating pigeon remained alert to my presence. I quelled my desire to see the nest and called it a day.

July 4, 2024

On the third day of the fieldwork, Mr. and Mrs. Shirai were again absent. The pigeon above the entrance to Tsutaya Books was still incubating. Watching the bird for a while, its lower eyelids seemed more closed than its upper eyelids. But perhaps I was just imagining this.

https://youtu.be/ga2X11ySYcA

The incubating pigeon, alert to a potential threat

July 9, 2024

On the fourth day of the fieldwork, I started in the evening to avoid the hottest time of the day. Large drops of rain fell at intervals. I was accompanied today by Beni, who previous helped me research the pigeons in Nagata Ward, Kobe, last year.* I shared what I had learned so far with Beni and we spent the evening observing the pigeons together.

I met Mrs. Shirai again for the first time in a while. We later also ran into Mr.Shirai. Both of them would seem to limit their activities to this neighborhood. That said, we never spotted the two birds together or interacting this time.

https://gyazo.com/f351d5fdc10da4402cc0de92392973f1

Mrs. Shirai

https://gyazo.com/85a9f581553ae56211b4ec41c03df9ce

Mr. Shirai

Since the two birds look very similar, I would like to show you how to tell them apart. Please reference the image below.

https://gyazo.com/584b0f4deccbb83ec438851cac525cd5

How to tell Mr. (left) and Mrs. (right) Shirai apart

If you see Mr. and Mrs. Shirai, or just one of them, please let me know.

*This project was carried out in 2023 with eight others, investigating the pigeons at the fountain plaza outside Shin-Nagata Station in Kobe as part of Shitamachi Art Festival 2023.

July 19, 2024

The fifth day of the fieldwork was really hot. I first watched the pigeon above the entrance to the bookstore. The position of its head was higher than usual, as if it was kind of standing up.

https://gyazo.com/75305468a5ba1868d312360e89e66231

Higher than usual

Looking around the area near Starbucks, I came across Mrs. Shirai. I didn’t meet Mr. Shirai today.

https://gyazo.com/ef9b259f1e7fce8accc56e6cb5d361ff

Mrs. Shirai on July 19

Not finding anything special, I went back to the entrance to Tsutaya Books. But what’s this?! The egg had hatched.

https://youtu.be/8LoRAhZm8_c

The hatchling

The chick was a bit yellowish. Its mother would sometimes preen it. If you happen to be passing by, don’t get too close but please do take a little look.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝