When pigeons are trying to be Impressive for whatever reason, they puff up their crops/throats/the bit with the shiny feathers. So a pigeon who has a puffed up throat, or inflated crop or inflated globe - if you wanna use some lingo that I’m not 100% on - is really strutting their stuff.
Big pigeon on the block, you see. If they’re scared then they try to be as small as possible, essentially.
Sometimes pigeons want to be Impressive for courtship purposes. Some areas of Being Impressive are:
So notice these things are emphasized in our friend the pygmy pouter here. He might be small, but boy oh boy is he sexy to lady pigeons.
Now, normally humans don’t tend to breed our domesticated species to be more attractive to each other, but there’s a reason these breeds are called “thief pouters”.
Not too long ago, people were much more interested in pigeons, on a grand scale. Pigeon lofts were kept in numerous places, and the pigeons were allowed to fly in and out- kind of like today’s outdoor cats, except pigeons don’t kill for fun. Because pigeons were free flying, that meant that if they didn’t want to go back to their own loft, they wouldn’t.
Normally pigeons DO go back to their home nests. It’s safe, their family’s there, but...
Sometimes you’re flying around and you happen to see...
The sexiest man you have ever seen.
So you follow him home because he is SO sexy.
For humans, this meant that if you had the sexiest pigeons, they would bring in MORE pigeons. For free. Cuz they’re just so irresistible.
In actuality, croppers and pouters are some of the least anxious pigeons out there. Horseman thief pouters actually get extra points if they try to impress the judge.
You wanna see a rock dove with anxiety?
These shiny bois tend to be much more nervous than pouters for sure.
